John McKee "Jack" Pratt

On February 16, 2024, retired civil rights activist and attorney, politician, and business owner, John McKee (Jack) Pratt died at his home in Walpole, New Hampshire. He was 90 years old. Born in Syracuse, New York on May 14, 1933, Jack was the second of three children, the oldest of whom was his sister Susan Flessa and the youngest of whom was his twin sister Janet.

After graduating from high school in Syracuse, Jack attended Williams College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa during his junior year and where ideas and values of social activism began to take hold for Jack. Along with his religious background, those concepts propelled Jack to earn a Master’s of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Laws degree from Columbia University. Those years of education, combined with lessons learned while working summer jobs propelled Jack to take quiet, but effective, behind the scenes positions such as becoming an attorney for the National Council of Churches. It was while working at the National Council that Jack began working with people such as Martin Luther King Jr., and Eleanor Roosevelt. Jack never pat himself on the back about his work on civil rights causes around the country and in the still very segregated south, but pictures such as the one of Jack on the front line with Martin and Coretta King at a demonstration in Selma, Alabama and images of Jack on the Edmund Pettis Bridge make it very clear that he was effective and respected heart, mind, and voice for the abused and underrepresented citizens of the United States.

After many years of being based in New York and working for the National Council of Churches,

Jack moved to Venice, California where he began to get involved with California’s local politics. It was while living in Southern California that Jack met Char, the woman who would become his wife. They remained together for over 10 years and eventually moved from Venice, California to the hills of Sherman Oaks, California. Being engaged with local politics did not preclude Jack from reaching out to national politicians. In fact, he was at the Ambassador Hotel with Robert Kennedy the night Kennedy was killed. Jack lost his bid for congress that year the loss of his run for congress and the nation’s loss of a presidential candidate caused Jack to refocus his skills by starting a day labor employment agency called The Right Man in downtown Los Angeles. As that business became successful and grew, Jack branched out and began a consulting business which advised large corporations such as Wells Fargo Bank on how to make charitable contributions to nonprofits around the country.

Soon Jack took a step which helped return his focus back to the east coast. He began working with the board of trustees at his alma mater, Williams college and it was on one of those trips east that Jack discovered his future home of Walpole, New Hampshire. While driving from Williamstown to visit his sister in Keene, Jack made the detour to look at a house that had been advertised in the newspaper: the rest is history. Jack bought a home in Walpole. In 1992, Jack loaded his three dogs into his station wagon and began the drive across the country to begin what was probably the happiest chapter of his life.

For the first few years that Jack lived in Walpole, his sister moved from Keene to share the house with him. Jack’s nephew, her older son, moved his family into what had been the guest house on the farm and the families made the farm a welcoming place. As Jack grew more familiar with Walpole his love of politics and helping people took on new energy as he became one of Cheshire county’s representatives in Concord. After serving a few terms in Concord, Jack filed down his focus to center more on Walpole and he became a member of the town’s Board of Selectmen.

In the last few years, as Jack’s health slowly declined, he narrowed his focus a little more by stepping down from the Selectboard and centering his attention on his farm. In the few years that remained, Jack lost his sight and his hearing, but his determination and will to get the most out of his life and share with others never faded. On the morning of February 16, Jack Pratt died peacefully in his sleep. He will be greatly missed.

His family, friends, and the town will have the opportunity to remember Jack and celebrate his life on the afternoon and evening of May 25 in the fields of his farm on Reservoir Road from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm.