Arlene Elise Leinbach-Prince

Arlene Leinbach Prince passed away peacefully in Phoenix, Arizona with her children Michelle and Rob Leinbach at her side after 90 trailblazing years on this planet. Arlene was born in 1934 in Passaic, New Jersey and spent her formative years in Roselle Park, New Jersey with her parents Roy and Hildreth Bailey and her brother Dale Bailey. Arlene was a proud graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon High School and Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, the latter where she met her husband Gary Leinbach at a dance with Williams College where he attended. Always the academic, Arlene was one of the earliest women to receive her Masters in Education at Harvard Radcliffe. In the early 1960s, she and Gary moved out west to Seattle, Washington (after a two year stint in Orleans, France) so Gary could finish his residency at the University of Washington. Arlene would stay in Seattle for approximately 60 years, where she dedicated her life to the education and the academic pursuits of northwest youth first at Eckstein Middle School and then as one of the earliest teachers at University Preparatory Academy. 

A fierce believer in the power of education to improve lives (as it had for her), Arlene taught Women’s Studies and History and then became the longtime Director of College and Career Counseling at University Prep. After, Gary’s death in 1972, Arlene remarried Bob Prince and helped co-parent Bob’s children Ashleigh and Jim Prince. 

She is survived by Michelle Leinbach and Rob Travis and their three children Ben, Taylor and Carly; Rob and Jenni Leinbach and their two children Alison and Lucas; Ashleigh Prince; Jim and Annie Prince and their three children Felix, Esther and Samuel; and her brother Dale Bailey and his wife Arlene. 

The family intends to have a celebration of life in Seattle in the Summer 2025.

In lieu of flowers and in memoriam of Arlene’s drive for education, please feel free to make a donation in her name to University Prep’s Endowed Financial Aid Fund to support access to college preparatory education or to The Obama Foundation. For University Prep donations, please use the link below or mail a check payable to ‘University Prep’ to UPrep Development Office, 8000 25th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115: https://giving.veracross.com/uprep/give/End_FA_Fund#gift-amount-step.  Please include ‘In Memory of Arlene Prince’ in comment field. For the Obama Foundation, please go to https://www.obama.org/donate/.  Much love.