title: Richardson Pratt Jr
text: # Richardson Pratt Jr
  
  Richardson Pratt Jr (March 25, 1923 - May 1, 2001) was an American businessman and educational administrator, president of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from 1972 to 1990, and chairman of Charles Pratt & Company.
  
  ## Early life
  
  Richardson Pratt Jr was born on March 25, 1923, and grew up in Brooklyn and Glen Cove, New York. He was the son of Richardson Pratt (1894-1959) and his wife, Laura Cecilia Parsons, and the grandson of Charles Millard Pratt. He was a great-grandson of the founder of the Pratt Institute, Charles Pratt.
  
  He was educated at the Choate School and earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1946, and a master's degree from the Harvard Business School in 1948.
  
  ## Career
  
  He was president of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from 1972 to 1990, and chairman of Charles Pratt & Company.
  
  ## Personal life
  
  In 1944, Pratt married Mary Esterbrook Offutt, the daughter of Mr and Mrs Caspar Yost Offutt, a former diplomat, in Omaha, Nebraska. Her uncle was the aviator Jarvis Offutt. She was educated at Shipley School and Vassar College.
  
  They had three children, Laura P. Gregg of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Thomas R. Pratt of Coconut Grove, Florida, and David O. Pratt of Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.
  
  Pratt died from pancreatic cancer on May 1, 2001, at his home in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, aged 78.
  
  