Life-long resident, businessman Jack Pring was Spokane Valley

By John McCallum

Current correspondent

Life-long resident, successful entrepreneur and overall friend of everything Spokane Valley, Jack Pring passed away on June 19, 2023. Pring passed with family nearby at the age of 92.

Born Jan. 21, 1931 in Spokane, Pring grew up in a home on Argonne Road. He graduated from West Valley High School where he was elected school president and captained the football, basketball and track and field teams.

It was also at West Valley where he met his future wife, Donna Christensen. The couple eventually married on June 28, 1953, and together had four children: Jock, Susie, Tim and Brad.

Jack Pring continued his post-high school education at the University of Idaho and at Washington State College (eventually Washington State University). He subsequently enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard during the period of the Korean War, serving aboard the 255-foot USCG Winona.

Named after Winona Lake, Indiana and based out of Port Angeles, Wash., according to the Coast Guard website, the Winona “was assigned to ocean station patrols, Bering Sea patrols, fisheries patrols and other law enforcement operations as well as search and rescue duties when needed. She typically served on Ocean Station November, mid-way between San Francisco and Hawaii, and Ocean Station Victor, midway between Hawaii and Japan.”

After serving in the Coast Guard, Pring returned home to pursue a dream of a career in the cattle industry. Having grown up riding horses cared for by his parents, father John Pring Sr. and mother Pauline, at the home on Argonne, Jack Pring moved to the Lewiston-Clarkston area where he worked on a cattle ranch.

Living in a trailer near Clarkston — complete with rattlesnakes at times taking residence underneath — Brad Pring said his grandfather paid Jack a visit.

“He went to him and said, ‘What are you doing?’” Brad Pring said.

The elder Pring convinced his son to abandon the cattle business and come work for him at the automobile dealership, Appleway Motors, he established in 1928 in Spokane Valley. Here Jack Pring found a calling, turning the dealership from a 100 cars sold per year to 1,500 cars sold in his first year alone.

Jack Pring took over ownership of Appleway Motors in 1955, and his sales success led to his eventual selection as a dealer representative on the Chevrolet National Dealer Council at the age of 28.

Brad Pring attributed his father’s success to his convictions that people coming to the dealership were more than just customers.

“His commitment was that a good deal always makes friends,” Pring said, adding his father believed a good negotiator was also a good listener and honest, always making sure people knew where they stood.

“He truly cared about people,” Brad Pring added.

The dealership expanded and eventually became the Appleway Automotive Group. In 1960, Jack Pring founded the Pring Corporation, which has developed a number of retail and office properties throughout the Northwest such as the F&M Center retail building at 509 N. Sullivan Road, opening in 2004.

In January 1981, Jack Pring returned to his love of horses by buying the then financially failing Playfair Racetrack in Spokane Valley, saving the facility operating since 1935 from being demolished. Jack and Brad Pring tried to operate the track as a familyfriendly enterprise, eventually leasing operation of the facility to other interests in 1988.

“He once said the first thing he learned to read was a racing form,” Brad Pring said, adding that at one point his father took to riding a horse from his home on 20th Avenue down Dishman-Mica Road to the racetrack for work.

“He was always a cowboy at heart,” Brad Pring said.

Playfair closed for good in 2000. It was torn down and eventually developed into a commerce park being its original name.

Pring served with a number of Spokane Valley and area organizations, sometimes on the board of directors or as president. These organizations included the Spokane Humane Society, Spokane Interstate Fair Board, the Boys and Girls Club of Spokane County and the Central Valley School District Board. He also partnered to help other organizations, such as the Spokane Youth Sports Association with a $20,000 loan in 1985 to help set up a bingo operation at Playfair, with proceeds supporting the association’s programs.

Jack Pring is survived by his wife Donna and three children, along with 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. His parents, sister Donna Gillis and son Tim preceded him in death.

Brad Pring said his father felt he was fortunate to be in a position to take advantage of a number of opportunities presented to him over his lifetime, including being witness to several historical events such as the opening of the Chunnel between Britain and France in 1994, and wanted others to have those chances too.

“As a son, he gave absolutely every opportunity to his family,” Brad Pring said.

A Celebration of Life was held for Jack on June 28 at Mirabeau Park Hotel and Convention Center. Brad Pring said that among the many people who spoke about his father at the event, one aspect of Jack Pring seemed to always show through.

“It didn’t matter who you were in that room, everybody thought they were Jack Pring’s friend, and he was theirs,” Brad Pring said. “He was there for everybody.”