Frederic B. Pratt
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Frederic Bayley Pratt (1865-1945) was the president of Brooklyn's Pratt Institute for 44 years, from 1893-1937.
He was born in Brooklyn NY, the son of Standard Oil magnate Charles Pratt and Mary Helen Richardson. He graduated from Amherst College in 1887. In 1893, he was elected President of the Board of Pratt Institute, taking over from his elder brother, Charles Millard Pratt. He remained in this post for 44 years, when the title passed to his son Charles.
In 1910, he succeeded Caspar Whitney as president of the American Olympic Committee, now the United States Olympic Committee, but only served for five weeks, prior to Col Robert Means Thompson.
On 17 October 1889, he married Caroline Ames Ladd, born 3 September 1861 in Portland OR, the daughter of William Ladd and Caroline Elliott.
The family estate in Glen Cove, Long Island, "Poplar Hill", is now owned by Glengariff Nursing Home since 1971. It was designed by William and Jeffery Platt, sons of Charles A. Platt.
His family home at 229 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn was given to the Pratt Institute; originally known as the Frederick B Pratt House, it is now kown as the Caroline Ladd Pratt House. It was completed in 1898, and designed by architects Babb, Cook & Willard in a neo-Georgian style.
He died in 1945 at his family home in Glen Cove, Long Island, aged 80, of a heart ailment.
They had three children:
- Charles Pratt (1892- ), President of the Board of Pratt Institute from 1937-1953
- Mary Caroline Pratt (1895-1980) who married Christian Herter, Governor of Massachusetts (1953-1956), and Secretary of State (1959-1961).
- Helen Ladd Pratt (1899- )
