Charles W. Pratt ’56

Charlie died May 27, 2012, at home in Exeter, N.H.

He was born in Boston, grew up in Concord, Mass., and came to Princeton from Phillips Exeter Academy, where he returned to teach high school English in 1966.

Charlie married Joan Callaway in 1963, with classmates John D’Arms, Bevis Longstreth, and Peter Barrett as ushers.

In 1984, the couple moved four miles from Exeter to Brentwood, N.H., to own and operate a small commercial apple orchard, “Apple Annie.” Charlie was active on town committees and worked hard on land-protection issues until 2011, when he retired from farming and moved back to Exeter.

From childhood on, Charlie had been writing poetry and his farming, teaching, traveling, and family experiences inspired several books, most recently From the Box Marked Some Are Missing: New and Selected Poems (Hobblebush Books, 2010).

Charlie was very fond of his hockey teammates and attended Princeton hockey team reunions in New York whenever he could, most recently his 50th in 2011.

He was especially devoted to his children, Sarah and Tim, their spouses, and his five grandchildren.

Gatherings at Apple Annie or at the family’s summer place on Cape Cod were surely the high points in his life, and his whole family is grateful for the gentle and generous person he was before brain cancer took him so suddenly.