PATRICIA ROSS PRATT

1929 - 2020

PRATT, Patricia Ross Patricia Ross Pratt died on May 16 of non-covid related pneumonia at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Thorvald S. Ross and Edith Parker Ross, predeceased by her husband of 62 years, Herbert W. Pratt, and brothers, John H. Ross and Thorvald Ross. Patricia Ross Pratt was born in 1929 and raised in Cambridge. She was educated at The Shady Hill School, The Winsor School, and Smith College, with a Junior Year abroad in Paris and Geneva. She then worked for two years at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a secretary and research assistant to William G. Constable, Curator of European Painting. After her marriage to Herbert W. Pratt, in 1952, she continued to type Constable's manuscript on Canaletto, published in 1969. For many years she was on The Visiting Committee of the Asiatic Art Department at the Museum. She started working on a biography of Denman Waldo Ross in 1967, for which she was appointed a Scholar at The Radcliffe Institute (1969-70). While working on the biography, she and her husband raised three children, and Patricia started and maintained a landscape design practice for forty years, specializing in historic preservation. In 2020, she published "The Best of Its Kind: The Life of Denman Waldo Ross: teacher, collector, painter writer 1853-1935." This book is a long-incubated tribute to a family member and a rare and distinguished leader in the arts. Lifelong volunteer, board member and community and conservation activist in numerous organizations including: Mt. Auburn Hospital, Museum of Fine Arts (Library and Department of Asiatic Art Visiting Committees), Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge Conservation Commission, John F. Kennedy Memorial Park Committee, Cambridge Community Foundation (board president), New England Wildflower Society, Cambridge Plant Club (president), Cambridge Plant and Garden Club (president), and Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (W.A.N.D.). In 1980, for thirty years, she gave talks titled "Non-Trivial Pursuits" with two friends, Frances Webb and Jean Onesti, around the country on the issues of radioactive waste and nuclear weapons. She was a founder of Cambridge At Home, now called Cambridge Neighbors, for aging in place. Patricia led a full and happy life with her motto "DIN" Do It Now. She traveled extensively with friends and family. She maintained ties with Danish and Scottish relatives throughout her life. Important in her life were art, visiting museums, fishing, birding, cooking, and her water color painting. Clubs include the Women's Travel Club, Mother's Study Club and the Ladies Dinner Group. Survived by her children, Berit Pratt, and her wife Cornelia (Betsy) Smith of Cambridge, MA, Charles Pratt and his wife Lois Gallant of Mattapoisett, MA, Katherine Pratt of Napa, CA, her grandchildren, Lily Pratt, Mei Lin Pratt, Sophie Pratt and Samuel Pratt, her sister-in-law, Barbara Ross of Palo Alto CA, her niece, Edith Ross Parker and her husband Robert Parker of Brentwood, CA, her nephew, Samuel Pratt and his wife Olga Pratt of Boulder, CO, and many other relatives. Services are private. In lieu of flowers, donations in Patricia's memory can be made to Mount Auburn Hospital for the Patricia and Herbert Pratt Family Healing Garden, c/o Development Office, Mount Auburn Hospital, 330 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 or online at www.mountauburnhospital.org/healinggarden