David Prytherch: Man With A Plan

BY DUNCAN STEWART
Miami University journalism student

David Prytherch is a planner.

Ask him what he’ll bring to his new position as a member of Oxford City Council.

“My planning skills.”

The group he worked with for more than 10 years to improve Oxford? The Planning Commission.

But planning isn’t just creating a list of goals.

“Planning is a window on how people translate their goals for society into the landscape,” Prytherch says.

And he has plans for Oxford.

Life before Oxford

Prytherch, 47, grew up in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

“It was, like Oxford, a small town that people valued very highly,” he said. “It had lots of history.”

He attended Pennsylvania State University, where he developed a passion for geography.

“I was interested in places, how they came to be, how they change,” he said.

He then earned his master's degree and PhD in geography from University of Arizona.

Prytherch lived in Valencia, Spain, for a year while completing his doctoral research. He became fluent in Spanish and Catalan and studied urban planning.

The intersection of history and globalization was what interested him in Valencia.

“Valencia is a place with a strong regional identity.” He said. “They’re trying to navigate globalization and European integration while still preserving what makes them unique."

Oxford 'felt like home'

Prytherch moved to Oxford from Tuscon, Arizona, in 2003 to begin teaching at Miami. He and his wife, Kathleen Veslany, immediately knew Oxford was a good fit.

“It’s a beautiful town with a lot of history,” he said. “We liked the Midwestern values.”

Veslany, who works as an intervention learning specialist at Miami, said she knew Oxford was the right town for them right after they moved in, when they took their then 1-year-old daughter to a Halloween parade.

“She won a prize from the Lion’s Club and got her picture in the paper,” laughed Prytherch.

“It was so sweet,” said Veslany. “It’s one of my favorite memories.”

A passionate professor

Senior James Gale said Prytherch’s passion for geography and planning come across immediately in the classroom.

“My Geography 201 class was in a big lecture hall, and he always walked around, getting up close and personal with every student,” he said. “He’s got such an energetic presence. He’s almost electric.”

Senior Christine Daley also took 201 with Prytherch, and noticed how he knew everyone's name by the end of the semester, despite the class having more than 100 students.

He also helps students outside the classroom. He invited Daley, who is also his advisee, to a Miami alumni event to meet a former student who works in urban planning. Daley was nervous about the event. But when she arrived, Prytherch was there to help her come out of her shell and introduce her to the former student, who became Daley’s mentor.

“He’s really helped me out a lot,” said Daley.

Boards and commissions

Prytherch doesn’t just use his planning and geography skills to teach; he has been involved in the Oxford community for more than a decade.

“Oxford’s a great community to get involved in,” he said. “It’s a place where people value those who want to get engaged.”

He was appointed to the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Planning Commission in 2007. Right away, he set to work protecting Oxford’s history and starting new projects to help the town.

Alan Kyger, Oxford’s economic development director, believes Prytherch's deep passion for urban planning and geography made him a valuable asset to the Planning Commission.

“This is his profession and his vocation. He’s living what he is teaching,” said Kyger.

While on the Planning Commission, Prytherch helped to develop the Oxford Area Trails, a network of recreational walking and biking paths around the town. He also worked on implementing bike lanes, a project close to his heart as he often rides his bike to work at Miami.

Prytherch is also proud of his work to bring an Amtrak stop to Oxford. When complete -- in the next year and a half, according to Kyger -- Miami students will have an easier way to travel to Chicago and New York City and faculty will have a new reason to settle Oxford, he said.

City Council campaign

While Prytherch was working on these and other projects, he realized that there were limits to what he could accomplish on the Planning Commission. He decided there was one arena where he could make a bigger difference: Oxford City Council. He launched his campaign in August of this year and began reaching out to Oxford citizens, extolling his record on the Planning Commission and his plans to take Oxford to the next level.

The campaign was competitive, with nine candidates, including two incumbents, running for only four available seats.

“It pushed all the candidates to work really hard, to reach out to people,” Prytherch said.

Prytherch gained an edge by taking his campaign right to the people. He went door to door on his bike, sharing his accomplishments and his vision for the future of Oxford.

“It was really inspiring to talk to so many different people,” he said. “I learned all the different reasons why people live in Oxford, and how much they care about it.”

Looking forward

His grassroots campaign worked. On Nov. 7, Prytherch received 19 percent of the vote, the highest of any of the nine candidates.

Mayor Kate Rousmaniere, a fellow member of the City Council, is looking forward to adding Prytherch’s strategic planning skills to the council.

“David’s really all about the big picture,” she said. “He encourages the city to not be short-termed in their thinking.”

He began his four-year term on Nov. 27 -- his 48th birthday -- aiming to strengthen Oxford’s economy by bringing in more tourists and new residents.

Completing the Oxford Area Trail is one of his chief goals. He also wants to create more affordable housing for Oxford residents, and preserve the historical Mile Square.

All of this will take time and effort. Results may not come easily. Challenges will definitely come up. No worries.

David Prytherch has a plan.

Photo: David Prytherch raises chickens and a rabbit in a hutch next to his extensive garden. -- Photo by Duncan Stewart