On the golf course or in his office, William D. Pratt was a gregarious man who rarely turned down a good conversation.
As longtime vice president of public affairs at Abbott Laboratories, he was able to meld his work and his hobby in helping launch the pharmaceutical and health-care company’s foray into the field of professional golf in the late 1960s, his family said.
The company, Faultless Golf, produced one of the early one-piece rubber golf balls.
Mr. Pratt, 86, of Northbrook, a longtime public affairs specialist and avid golfer, died Saturday, June 3, in Highland Park Hospital of renal failure.
He grew up in Indianapolis and graduated from Indiana University in about 1940, said his stepson Arnold Taylor. He then worked as a sports reporter at the now-defunct Indianapolis Times and later at an advertising agency, his family said.
He married his first wife, Edna Ware, around this time, and the couple had seven children. They later divorced.
In 1951 Mr. Pratt joined Abbott as an advertising copywriter, his family said. A big break came in 1968 when he helped launch Faultless Golf.
“I don’t know how he did it, but he landed Lee Trevino as the company’s first spokesman,” said his son Kevin. “He was very proud.”
Mr. Pratt retired in 1982 but kept busy with civic groups. He was president of the Mary Bartelme Homes, where he had met his second wife, Susan Taylor, another board member.
“He was always a busy guy, even in retirement,” his son said. “When he wasn’t working, he began furiously painting. If you knew him, like it or not, you probably had a watercolor or 10 of them. Everyone would get a framed, matted painting each Christmas and birthday.”
He painted more than 600 watercolors, most of which were landscape scenes, his family said.
He previously had been chairman of the Chicago branch of the American Heart Association, his family said.
Mr. Pratt is also survived by his wife; two daughters, Deborah Curry and Ellen; two sons, Thomas and Michael; a stepson, Mason Taylor; a stepdaughter, Nan Taylor Cosier; two brothers, Daniel and Richard; and 10 grandchildren.
Services have been held.
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bmccarthy@tribune.com
