Alice F Prince Passed away quietly on December 23, 2021.
Born in 1942 in Cedar Rapids, IA the daughter of Lenore and Lawrence Langfeldt, sister to Rev John Langfeldt of The Dalles, OR, and Fritz Langfeldt, deceased. The family soon moved to Oregon and then Hoquiam, WA, where she spent her youth, attended Hoquiam High School and worked on a small cattle ranch. She developed a love of horses at a very early age and, on Christmas day at the age of 6, her parents surprised her with a young mare named Sugar.
Alice and Sugar were inseparable and, when the family relocated to Renton, WA, Sugar came along. Eventually, the family moved to Bellevue and Alice attended the University of Washington, later working at the Seattle World’s Fair, and then developing IT Skills which led to work at Boeing, Farmers Life Insurance, and various other local firms. Along the way she took up skiing and joined a ski school where she would spend many weekends teaching others how to enjoy the sport.
She met her husband Donald in 1972 and they were married the following year. In 1977 they bought a home just outside Bridle Trails State Park in Kirkland, WA, and had just enough land to bring Sugar home. Alice had joined the Lake Washington Saddle Club in the 1960’s, so now she could ride from her home into the park, and join the horse show activities sponsored by the LWSC. She and her husband never moved again.
Over the past 44 years, Alice always had a horse in her pasture, and she would develop her riding skills in Western, English, and Dressage–even learning to drive horse-pulled carts. She loved all animals and had several golden retrievers, but her first love was horses–the last, Poco became the love of her life. After Poco died, despite being stricken with cancer and the partial loss of her sight, Alice kept looking for ways to ride. Just last summer she joined Little Bit Therapeutic Riding to enjoy the feel of a horse beneath her again.
Alice was a passionate woman who would always speak up if she felt something was wrong. In 2001, Washington State Parks were being “defunded” and drew up a list of 10 State Parks to be closed. Bridle Trails State Park was at the top of the list. Alice immediately saw this as a threat to the entire horse community and the very character of her neighborhood. Through her efforts, and with the help of others, she pushed for a solution to keep Bridle Trails State Park open. She was a founding member of the Bridle Trails Park Foundation which negotiated a 40 year agreement with the State Parks Commission to keep the park in the state system so long as the BTP foundation would pay 50% of the annual operating expenses. The foundation has become a resounding success and the Bridle Trails State Park is thriving.
Her passion for horses led her to have her neighborhood annexed to the City of Kirkland, and she then pushed for adding language in the zoning code to protect the few remaining horse-keeping properties from being overrun with new development.
Alice is survived by her husband Donald, two stepchildren (Jay Prince and Deb Prince), two grandchildren she adored, Alexander Prince and Stephanie Prince, her brother Rev. John Langfeldt, and three nieces. She will be missed by her family and friends.
A special thank you to Mira and Evergreen Hospice for the caregivers who provided compassionate care during Alice’s illness.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Alice’s memory to Little Bit Therapeitic Riding.
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