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Earlier this month Pratt donated $1.5 million, part of an inheritance from his grandparents, that will be used to fund the expansion and renovation of the hospital's emergency room. The new facility will be renamed the George N. Pratt and Sarah Meyer Pratt Emergency Department.
"Life's been good to me," said Pratt, 82. "I was lucky -- I had good parents."
Dr. George Pratt was a World War I veteran who served as a major on the Medical Corps and later on staff at two hospitals in Wisconsin and as chief of surgery at Long Island's Camp Mills.
He retired and moved his family, including 7-year-old son Bruce, to the Lowcountry. The intention was to enjoy the simple Southern life. But war intervened. He became Beaufort County's commander of civil defense at the start of World War II. As retirement ceded to service, he became involved in the development of a 16-bed hospital in Beaufort.
What's now known as Beaufort Memorial Hospital came as a much-needed boost to health care in the county. Previously, residents had to travel to Savannah or Charleston for major medical care. But an issue arose during the hospital's organization -- the Beaufort area lacked surgeons. Pratt began covering local physicians' practices, while they traveled to receive surgical training in Charleston.
He eventually became chief of the medical staff and later the administrator. His wife, Sarah, was a founding member of the Beaufort Memorial Women's Hospital Auxiliary. George was instrumental in the start of the first mobile emergency unit and the auxiliary's Lending Room, which provides medical equipment to discharged patients.
After living shortly on land in what's now known as Moss Creek in Bluffton, the family settled on Holly Hall Plantation on Lady's Island.
Bruce Pratt graduated from a boarding school, The Hill School, in Pottstown, Pa., and served in the U.S. Air Force for three years. He tried engineering and considered medicine. But he never thought of himself as a people person; he was more of an animal lover. He graduated Auburn University's veterinary college, and returned to Beaufort to start a practice. He was one of two vets in town. About 40 years later, after raising a family that included four children, he retired from Holly Hall Animal Hospital in 1993. He still lives on the land his family settled.
"In my mind, there's no other place to live," he said.
Pratt first got the idea for the donation to the hospital about a year ago. The money had come from his mother's parents. His grandfather was one of the founders of Feenamint, a firm that produced the first laxative. The company eventually joined pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough.
He had been making contributions over the past several years to other institutions that had been pivotal in his life -- Auburn's College of Veterinary Medicine and Medical University of South Carolina's Storm Eye Institute that helped correct his vision.
Pratt had not been intimately involved at Beaufort Memorial during his adult life, but the donation served a dual purpose -- it helped a community he called home and it recognized his parents' contributions to that community.
Through discussions with hospital leaders, he found that one of the hospital's biggest needs was an expansion to its crowded emergency room. The facility is already one of the busiest in the region, serving more than 35,000 patients each year.
"Gifts like this are so special because they allow us to take big steps," said hospital foundation executive director Alice Moss. "It helps everyone in the Lowcountry."
Shortly after making the donation, Pratt made a visit to his doctor. Something was wrong with his heart. His doctor told him he had a low pulse rate. He needed a pacemaker.
At first, he thought that type of sugery would require travel. He asked the doctor where he needed to go. Savannah? Charleston?
"No," the doctor said. "The best is right here."
Beaufort Memorial Hospital.
