John Lee Pratt was an American business executive and philanthropist.
Background
He was born on October 22, 1879 in King George County, Virginia, United States, was one of five children of Alexander Pratt and Agnes Jones. The Pratt family had lived in the area of Aspen Grove, Virginia, since colonial times. Pratt's ancestors fought in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812; Pratt's father had fought for the Confederacy, returning to his farm after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
As a child, John Lee Pratt worked on his father's farm alongside his father and brothers.
Education
He attended local schools, and in 1892 was apprenticed to the M. S. Chancellor Farm Implement Store, where he learned to assemble farm machinery. Before entering Randolph-Macon College, Pratt attended Locust Dale Academy. After one year at Randolph-Macon, Pratt transferred to the University of Virginia, from which he earned a degree in civil engineering in 1905.
Career
After graduation, Pratt was hired as an assistant engineer by the E. I du Pont de Nemours Chemical Company. In light of the growing threat of war in Europe, Pratt was sent by Du Pont to Chile to supervise the company's nitrate interests there; nitrate is important in the manufacture of explosives.
He returned to the United States in 1914 to become the resident engineer at Du Pont's guncotton plant. At a time when munitions manufacture for Allied forces generated the need for additional Du Pont factories, Pratt was promoted to chief executive of Du Pont's Development and Civil Engineering Division. In 1916, he moved to a subsidiary of Du Pont, the American Nitrogen Company, where he supervised the development of the technology to extract nitrogen from air. He was also responsible for the construction of factories to carry out this process.
In 1917, Du Pont, which had invested in the fledgling General Motors Company (GM), sent Pratt to consult at GM. Impressed by Pratt's succinct and incisive response to a company housing problem, GM president W. C. Durant persuaded Pratt to join GM as his assistant in 1919. One of Pratt's first assignments was to dismantle the Frigidaire Company. After interviewing "ice-less box" owners who complained about their appliances' flaws but who refused to accept a refund or to give back their refrigerators, Pratt convinced GM to pursue refrigeration technology and to develop a safe, efficient coolant; the result was the invention of Freon. Subsequently, Pratt was responsible for expanding GM's diesel motor division when he persuaded the Seaboard Coast Line to replace locomotive coal engines with diesel engines. By 1922, Pratt had been promoted to vice-president at General Motors, supervising all its nonautomotive divisions.
As chief-of-staff to several GM presidents, Pratt served as an executive for the entire corporation, rather than as a CEO of any single division. Pratt was elected a director of GM in 1923 and remained active on board committees through 1952. Pratt resigned from his position as executive vice-president of General Motors in 1937 and from GM's board of directors in 1968.
In 1939, Pratt was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the War Resource Board chaired by a former GM colleague, Edward Settinius. The War Resource Board addressed the need for America's industrial mobilization when World War II broke out in Europe. After the United States entered the war, Pratt served as a senior consultant to the Office of Lend-Lease Administration. In 1942, Pratt, as a member of the War Production Board, brought executives from major American companies to Washington to work with the military to ensure the timely production of war-related goods. In 1944, Pratt was appointed to the American Mission in London under Secretary of State Edward Settinius. In 1931, Pratt purchased Chatham Manor, an eighteenth-century estate near Fredericksburg. Virginia.
In 1948, Pratt contributed to the founding of McCullum-Pratt Institute at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, an interdepartmental facility established to study trace elements in plants and animals. He also contributed to the founding of the Bowman School of Geography at Johns Hopkins. In all, Pratt gave Johns Hopkins more than $9 million, much of it anonymously. He also gave generously to the University of Virginia, Washington and Lee University, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Pratt died at his home, Chatham Manor, near the place of his birth.
Achievements
During his career at General Motors Pratt directed GM's development department; supervised the planning and construction of factory-worker housing; and chaired the GM inventory committee that focused production and created a base for corporate financial stability during the Great Depression. He also purchased and helped preserve historic Chatham Manor in Stafford County, Virginia.
He was listed by Fortune magazine as one of the twenty richest men in America in the mid-1950's, with holdings estimated to be in excess of $100 million. Pratt made a number of substantial gifts to universities, hospitals, museums, parks, and libraries during his lifetime and in the disbursement of his estate. Together with his wife he established the John Lee and Louise Thomas Pratt Foundation. In all ten universities shared $60 million in Pratt's bequests for programs in physics, biomedical research, engineering, and agriculture. In 1961, Pratt donated seventy-five acres of his estate near the Rappahannock River and supporting capital to build the St. Clair Brooks Park.
Views
Pratt required that the capital from his endowments be "converted into knowledge that is useful and beneficial to mankind without undue delay. " His gifts were intended to underwrite salaries, scholarships, and research, not to be used for investment or converted into bricks and mortar.
Personality
He was a brilliant businessman, committed to learning, and a philanthropist who avoided publicity and never courted fame or honor for his good works.
Quotes from others about the person
GM president Alfred P. Sloan called Pratt "the best businessman I have ever known. "
Connections
John Lee Pratt married Louise Thomas of Philadelphia in 1918. The couple had no children. Mrs. Pratt, who died in 1947, shared many of her husband's interests.
