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NEW WEATHER EXHIBIT TRIBUTE TO LOCAL MAN

By Erin France/OF THE COMMERCIAL
Saturday, November 21, 2009 12:15 AM CST

Larry Pringos was a local farmer who, by all accounts, was fascinated by the weather.

Eric Maynard, director of the Delta Rivers Nature Center, addresses a packed house at the Nature Center for the grand opening of the Larry Pringos Weather Project Thursday evening. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

To honor his memory, a group of family, friends and admirers unveiled the Larry Pringos weather exhibit at the Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff Thursday night.

The project took about seven years and $75,000 in donations, said George Dunklin, a friend of Pringos’ and a member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

“Larry Pringos is a guy who has more best friends than anybody I know,” Dunklin said.

Dunklin and Mary Pringos, Larry Pringos’ widow, and Channel 7 were some of the main movers behind the project.

About 60 people looked on an interactive radar, looping programs on severe weather and a display on the water cycle featured prominently.

Dunklin said his family and the Pringos family saw a weather exhibit at the St. Louis Zoo about 18 years ago.

“Larry just fell in love with that weather exhibit,” he said.

After Pringos’ death, Dunklin said he got together with his widow and decided to do something in his memory dealing with the weather.

The two went to a friend at Channel 7 and the project snowballed from there, he said.

Through the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, donations for the project were collected.

“This is going to be the next big thing that we have,” said Eric Maynard, the director of the nature center.

With thousands of school children coming to the center every year, Maynard said he expects to see an increased interest in weather.

“They’re going to want to bring their parents back,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll be a catalyst to start some other new programs here.”

Mary Pringos also spoke Thursday, thanking personal friends as well as those who donated.

“This exhibit will go on for many, many years,” Dunklin said.

“This is such a tribute to Larry and Mary.”

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