Richardson Pratt Jr was born on March 25, 1923, and grew up in Brooklyn and Glen Cove, New York.
[1] 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.
[1] In 1944, Pratt married Mary Esterbrook Offutt, the daughter of Mr and Mrs Caspar Yost Offutt, a former diplomat, in Omaha, Nebraska.
[2][3] 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.
[1] Pratt died from pancreatic cancer on May 1, 2001, at his home in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, aged 78.