Charles Millard Pratt
Charles Millard Pratt (November 2, 1855 – November 27, 1935) was an American oil industrialist,[1] educator, and philanthropist.[2] As the eldest son of industrialist Charles Pratt,[1] in 1875 he began working at Charles Pratt and Company, soon becoming president.[1][3]
Charles Millard Pratt
November 2, 1855
November 27, 1935 (aged 80)
Financier, businessperson, educator, philanthropist
Mary Seymour Morris
5
- Charles Pratt (father)
- Lydia Ann Richardson (mother)
He was a director of the Standard Oil Company and later a president of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.[4] A philanthropist, he donated large sums to Vassar College and Amherst College, among other institutions.[5]
Early life and education[edit]
Pratt was born on November 2, 1855 in Brooklyn.[1] He was raised on the Pratt family estate at 232 Clinton Avenue in the Clinton Hill district.[6] Pratt was the eldest son of Charles Pratt and Lydia A. Richardson.[1] His father married again, after the death of his first wife, to Mary Richardson. Charles had five younger half-brothers: Frederic B. Pratt, George Dupont Pratt, Herbert L. Pratt, John Teele Pratt and Harold I. Pratt, and one half-sister.
He graduated from Adelphi Academy in 1875[1] and from Amherst College in the class of 1879.[1][5] In 1880 at the age of 24, he was living at the family estate in Clinton Hill with his six younger siblings.[6]
Career[edit]
In 1875, Pratt began his business career at one of the family businesses, Charles Pratt & Co, a financial firm started by his father. He later became its president.[1][3] Pratt joined Standard Oil in 1879. He was a director and secretary at Standard Oil from 1899 to 1911, and treasurer from 1908 to 1911.[1][3] For years he was also president of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, contributing greatly to its endowment.[1]
For a time, he was a vice president of the Long Island Rail Road. He also held directorships in other companies,[1][3] including the Brooklyn City Railroad and American Express. In March 1900, Pratt was re-elected a director of the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, to serve three years.[7] Prior to 1923, he was a trustee of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company,[3] president and director of The Thrift, and director of the Union Mortgage Company, Chelseai Fibre Mills, Hoagland Laboratories, Pratt & Lambert, Self-Winding Clock Company, and others.[3]
In May 1923, Justice Stephen Calaghan[3] of the Kings County Supreme Court confirmed “findings of a special sheriff's jury” that Pratt was unable to conduct his business.[8] The New York Times reported that this was due to his "age," likely a euphemism for dementia or another variant of cognitive impairment.[3] His wife and two living sons were named a committee of the person to represent him.[8] According to the report, the condition manifested in December 1922.[3]
Philanthropy[edit]
He was president of the Pratt Institute's board of trustees, as well for a time of the Adelphi Academy.[1] He was a trustee of Amherst College and Vassar College.[3] He was a director of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities and other charitable entities.[1][3]
He personally contributed funds to Adelphi Academy, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn, and Amherst and Vassar. For example, as a trustee of Vassar from 1896 to 1920, he contributed more than $800,000, which enabled development of the college's outdoor theatre, artificial lake, and landscape gardens.[1] The New York Times said the gardens “made its campus famous throughout the country.”[9] Pratt House at Vassar, a residence for the warden (a variegated administrative role encompassing student affairs duties), was completed in 1915 by architects York and Sawyer. Pratt also contributed to the endowment and the building of structures at the Pratt Institute. In 1910, he and his five brothers and a sister gave $1,750,000 to the institute.[1]
As a trustee of Amherst from 1897 and 1921, Pratt contributed funds for a gymnasium, dormitory, and other buildings.[1] He was the first alumnus to donate a building to Amherst College—the Pratt Gymnasium was erected in 1883, and was reconstructed as the Pratt Museum in 1942. Following further rebuilding, it reopened in August 2007 as the Charles M. Pratt Dormitory. Pratt was also responsible for the Morris Pratt Dormitory at Amherst College in 1911, in memory of his son Morris, who died at Amherst while an undergraduate student.[10]