Prets was born to A.F. and Julia DeMers on October 24, 1924 and passed away March 21, 2009. He was the seventh of nine children in the family.

His first wife, Ethel; his five brothers, Francis, Robert, Earl, Elmer, and Frank, and his sister, Helen, preceded Prets in death. He is survived by his wife, Leuita; one brother, Don; a sister, Agnes; and his three children, Barbara Clyde Thoren, Steven Jenee DeMers, Shaune Ken Fry; and 8 grandsons.

Prets moved to Genesee, Idaho in the late twenties and lived there until WWII. He enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and served for 3 plus years. He was assigned to a destroyer during two years of the war and saw action in the Pacific in major engagements from the Marshall Islands to Okinawa.

After the war he went to work at Hanford. He worked there for 391/2 years. At his request there will be no services. Any memorials may be made in his name to the CBC Leuita Mathiowetz Endowment Fund.