Frederic B. Pratt
Frederic Bayley Pratt (22 February 1865 – 3 May 1945) was the president of the board of trustees of Brooklyn's Pratt Institute for 44 years, from 1893–1937.
Early life
He was born in Brooklyn NY, the son of Standard Oil magnate Charles Pratt and Mary Helen Richardson.
He was brother to George Dupont Pratt, Herbert L. Pratt, John Teele Pratt and Harold I. Pratt; and half-brother to Charles Millard Pratt.
He graduated from Amherst College in 1887.[1]
Career
In 1893, he was elected President of the Board of Pratt Institute, taking over from his elder brother, Charles Millard Pratt. Because Charles Pratt Snr. died so soon after the college was founded, Frederic Pratt is ascribed with guiding the college through its early decades.[2] 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.
Personal life
On 17 October 1889, he married Caroline Ames Ladd (3 September 1861, Portland OR - 12 June 1946, Glen Cove), the daughter of William Ladd and Caroline Elliott.
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 (1899-1972)
The family estate in Glen Cove, Long Island, "Poplar Hill", designed by Charles A. Platt for Frederic Pratt, has been owned by Glengariff Healthcare Center since 1971.[3]
Pratt's family home at 229 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn, was designed by noted New York architect Henry F. Kilburn. It was originally known as the "Frederic B. Pratt House" (it is now known as the Caroline Ladd Pratt House). It was completed in 1898 in a neo-Georgian style. It was given to the Pratt Institute
Pratt died in 1945 at the family home in Glen Cove, aged 80, of a heart ailment.
References
- ↑ "Amherst College Class of 1887". Amherst College Biographical Record, Centennial Edition (1821-1921). Amherst College. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- ↑ The History of Pratt, Pratt Institute. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
- ↑ "History". Glengariff Healthcare Center. Retrieved 8 May 2013.