12/30/2009 6:00:00 AM
GV woman has led life of adventure
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KINGMAN - One of Mohave County's newest employees has experience as a twice-elected assessor, clerk of the courts, business owner and adventurer.
Peggy Prince started work as secretary to the clerk of the Board of Supervisors less than two months ago.
"I work at the front desk, process paperwork and meet the public," she said.
Public service is not new to Prince, who was, at 21, the youngest elected official in the state of Colorado.
Born and raised in Denver, Prince moved to a mountainous region of that state in 1972, "where I went to work for the Grand County Assessor's Office," she said. "The Winter Park ski area is probably the most identifying place in that county. Like Mohave County, it is very large with a small population - small towns and lots of ranching."
At 20 years old, Prince was hired to be deputy assessor.
"The elected assessor had just left office and most of the staff followed," she said.
"The deputy assessor of that time was appointed to fill out the last two years of his term. When I came in to interview, I had office skills, so I was hired immediately to be deputy assessor. At that time, we were going through a state-mandated, complete reappraisal of the entire county, which hadn't been done in many years."
It was the early '70s, and there were no computers.
"We had to physically visit every property and do all of the paperwork and processing by hand," she said. "It was quite an undertaking.
"When the next election came along, the appointed assessor decided she didn't want to run for office," Prince said. "This was a solid Republican county. The gentleman who was going to run as a Republican was a bit controversial. We (assessor's staff) decided we didn't want to see all of our hard work changed. So it was decided I would run for assessor. I turned 21 in May of that year, just before the caucuses took place. I ran as an Independent and won."
It was quite a process just to get on the ballot, she said. "I had to get about as many signatures as a candidate in Denver County would, and they had to be notarized."
Prince was the youngest elected official in Colorado and "that record probably still holds. After four years, I was re-elected as a Republican," she said.
During that time, Prince met and married her husband, Bob, who had two daughters from a previous marriage.
"I served two years of my second term," she said. "Due to family concerns, we moved back to Denver where I worked as a parts and warranty manager for a company that sold and serviced corporate aircraft."
After a while, the couple moved to Moffat County, "even further up in the mountains," where "my husband had been chief investigator for the district attorney back when I met him. I became clerk of the combined courts there."
The next move was back to Denver, "where I went back to the aircraft company as executive assistant to the president."
The 1990s brought new adventures to the Prince family.
"We took a trip to Washington State and chartered a boat in the San Juan Islands," she said. "On the way back, we visited a small town, La Conner, and fell in love with it. We both enjoy the water and we decided to move there."
In looking over La Conner, the couple decided the area needed a chocolate shop. "We went home and started putting our business plans together," she said. "Our house sold quickly. Over the next year, we taught ourselves how to make chocolate truffles, fudge, etc. We got some really old recipes from the library and worked on those and modified them. We went to Marble, Colo., and bought two really large marble slabs to bring to Washington for the business."
The Princes opened their chocolate shop in 1991 and "we were very busy," she said. "We did worldwide mail order and gift baskets and were very successful. Six years later, a gentleman called and told us he wanted to buy our business and franchise it. We told him it wasn't for sale, but he ended up making the deal."
The couple took a year off to work on their home.
"Then I bought a book store in La Conner and turned it into a children's store," Prince said. "It was called, 'From Grandma With Love.' We had books, toys and high-end clothes. I had that for several years. In the meantime, my husband had gotten his master captain's boating license."
A year ago, Bob was talking to a real estate agent "friend from Lake Havasu City," she said. "We ended up buying a home in Golden Valley. We are off-grid (no utilities), but we have all of life's conveniences using alternative energy sources including some solar. The house was built in 2006 but was never lived in until we moved here. After quite a bit of looking, I found this job with Mohave County."
Prince was worried about this move.
"I'm used to trees and lots of green," she said. "But this area is totally different and totally beautiful. We have family and friends coming here to visit us. We did many fun adventures while we were younger. Now we are older and are settling back down. We love it here."
Bob is presently finishing some work on the new house but will probably be looking for work locally soon, she said. "He was a chief investigator for a district attorney and was also a vice president and operations risk manager for several banks. Through all of our businesses and adventures, we have worked together. Not that many couples can work that closely. I'm proud we were able to do that and still survive 31 years of marriage."
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Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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what a great story! Welcome to Mohave County, Peggy and Bob!
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