William Davis Pratt Obituary

My sister and I are settling our mother’s estate. I came across an obituary of my maternal grandfather and two photos that I had never seen before. He lived in Bellingham Washington and I only spent a short time with him when we visited in 1955. I was too young to remember him. He used to send me a silver dollar on my birthday and once I received a baseball glove. I still have the coins and glove. I knew that he loved to climb moutains because we had his sleeping bag that he used when he climbed Mount Baker. It was canvas, filled with goose down and lined with wool. It weighed a ton. I took it camping one time in Cape Cod and it was hot and itchy. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to lug it up a 10,781 foot mountain.

"The lure of accomplishment
 draws on you. There's a peak;
I'm going to climb it."

Will D. Pratt 1958

This quote summed up his philosophy of life. He was a great influence on my mother and she lived a life full of accomplishments. I’m not sure how much of this worked its way into my life, but my mom tried to steer me in the right direction.

I remember that pistol. It was issued to my grandfather who was an army officer in WWI. Apparently there was an overlap between his duties with the YMCA and Army. My mother belong to a pistol league with her father and the pistol was at the house when I was growing up. In the 1960s my father and I used to shoot his .22 rifle in the basement at targets on a stack of wooden boards. One day he got out the .45 and we blasted away with some ancient ammunition. No hearing protection and splintered wood everywhere. Sadly my mother got rid of the gun after my father had died.

Will D. Pratt Obituary

May 3, 1960

Will D. Pratt, County Leader, Dies at 86

Will D. Pratt, who watched and helped this community grow from a village of some 700 persons in 1885, died Tuesday in a local hospital. He was 86 years old. 
"The lure of accomplishment
 draws on you. There's a peak;
 I'm going to climb it." This was 
his statement to a Herald reporter when he retired in 1958
 after 12 years as Whatcom County auditor. It was an observation on his hobby of mountain
 climbing; but also it was an expression of his philosophy of life. Mr. Pratt, during the last 60 years, served as a teacher, school district business manager, assistant postmaster and county auditor. He retired as county auditor in 1958.

AN ACTIVE LIFE

Mr. Pratt was trustee emeritus of Garden Street Methodist Church; a past president and 50- year member of the YMCA board of directors: a member of the Reserve Officers' Assn., and of Twentieth Century Club; a past president and member of Bellingham Kiwanis Club; a past master and 50-year member of Bellingham Bay Lodge No. 44. F & AM, Scottish Rite, York Rite Bodies, and Nile Temple of the Shrine.
 He had his lighter side, too, a member for many years of the Washington Club.
 Services for Mr. Pratt will be conducted at 10:30 a. m. Friday at Garden Street Methodist Church by the Rev. Don Swerdfeger. 

Officers of Bellingham Bay Lodge will conduct graveside services at Bay View Cemetery. The body will lie in state at Jones Funeral Home.

Survivors include a daughter, Mrs. Betty J. Poltrack, of Fairfield, Conn., and three grandchildren. Mr. Pratt came to Bellingham at the age of 10, in 1885, from New York with his parents.
 "Bellingham's change has been gradual-slow but consistent," he recalled recently.

TWO MONUMENTS

Due largely to his efforts, at least two Bellingham buildings are standing. He was chairman of the campaign to buy the present YMCA building on State and Holly Streets. He was director of the YMCA for 55 years, and also served as president of its board.
Mr. Pratt's name is on the cornerstone of the red brick Garden Street Methodist Church building which he helped to build in 1910. He served as a trustee of the church for 53 years.
 Mr. Pratt got his first job teaching in Lincoln School, in 1897. The next year he was appointed assistant postmaster.
 During World War I, Mr. Pratt's YMCA experience earned him a position as YMCA secretary in France with the American Expeditionary Forces.

SCHOOL SECRETARY

After the war, he became secretary and business manager of city schools, a position he held for 15 years. After brief active duty with the Army, he formed a partnership with Clyde Cory in the real estate business.
In 1939, Mr. Pratt was appointed chief deputy county auditor. He was elected auditor for the first time in 1946, and held the office 12 years with wide margins of votes:
One of Mr. Pratt's favorite activities was the scholarship fund of Knights Templar. Knights Templer Educational Foundation grants loans to juniors and seniors in college to aid them in their graduating years. He was secretary-treasurer of the organization for 35 years.
His principal outdoor hobby was mountain climbing, an activity which even his later years failed to stop. Mr. Pratt climbed Mount Baker at least 12 times, and conquered most of the neighboring peaks at least once.