June 17, 1942 - June 27, 2020
Written by Neil Mitchell ’60
All his Friends 1960 classmates mourn the passing of Larry Pratt, who had been bravely fighting a host of ailments over the last few years. We remember Larry for his omnipresent good nature and especially his sense of humor. He would show up at school with a copy of the Yale Record or the New Yorker and could be seen chortling over a humorous story or cartoon. Most fittingly, he attended then all-male Yale University (with five or six of his Friends classmates) and became a major contributor to the Record, eventually succeeding to the title of Editor-in-Chief—undoubtedly his childhood dream-come-true.
Larry lived in the Village, which may help explain his literary bent. His father, otherwise a buttoned-down Wall Street real estate lawyer, was an amateur musician who moonlighted as a member of the Grove Street Stompers jazz ensemble. Larry and his friends would often watch the Stompers play in one of the Village watering holes on Monday night (when the “real” paid band had the night off). Larry and his wife migrated to New England and had a house in rural Massachusetts. Larry travelled to New York City quite frequently and was a regular at his monthly Yale class luncheons at the Yale Club, where he entertained the rest of us with humorous anecdotes, occasionally interspersed with bulletins on his declining health. Despite a growing list of ailments, he remained upbeat about his family and life in general. Larry, those who knew you will sorely miss your eternal optimism and positive outlook on life. You will be remembered with great fondness by all who knew you—especially your Friends classmates.