Charles Pratt

April 30, 1939 - May 30, 2025

Charles Pratt died peacefully in his sleep on May 30, 2025. He was 86. He is survived by his sons and daughters-in-law, Eliot, Anika, Charlie and Ros, his grandchildren, Avery, Rowan and Emily, and his brother and sister-in-law, Sterling and Julianne.

Charles was born in Richmond, VA, and spent his formative years in Cincinnati, OH. He was a 1957 graduate of Woodward High School and a 1961 graduate of Harvard College in Cambridge, MA. After graduation he spent three years in the U.S. Army where he was stationed first at the United States Army Language School in Monterrey, CA, learning Russian, and then in West Berlin, Germany. During this time, he married Helen Forson whom he had met in the basement of his parents’ home in Fort Thomas, KY, at a Presbyterian Church mixer. After completing military service, he earned a JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1967. Charles then spent the rest of his life in New York City with his family. He lovingly cared for Helen for the final decade of her life during a protracted illness, finally losing her in 2020.

He enjoyed many summers in Murray Bay, Quebec, and took every opportunity to travel to France and Italy pursuing his interest in formal garden design.

In addition to private legal practice, he spent the majority of his career as General Counsel for the New York Power Authority where he gained a lifelong passion for public utilities, power transmission and clean energy, which led to a distinguished second career as an entrepreneur in those fields.

He will be laid to rest next to his wife and his parents in Swannanoa, NC.