William Pratt

William "Bill" D. Pratt, (8 November 1928 – 27 November 1999), a Canadian businessman who was chair of the Calgary Olympics, co-founder of the Canada Trail, and member of both the Olympic Order and the Order of Canada. Early life Bill Pratt was born on 8 November 1928 and began his career at Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa from 1942 to 1947. While at Lisgar, Bill could forge principal Johnny Dunlop's signature for the use of himself and friends. Forty years later in the Lisgar Alumni office, he made two or three tries before he got it right again. His grandfather was a blacksmith with a four-man blacksmith shop in the town of North Gower, Ontario. His high school summers were spent working for the Standard Holdings Group near Calgary where he was to be employed full-time from 1948 for the next 21 years, rising from a construction labourer to general manager. Pratt's mentor and friend Red Dutton, the old NHL hockey star and later one of the most active real estate developers in Calgary, gave him his first job, picking rocks in the high mountains to the west of Calgary. Pratt worked so hard Dutton kept him on the payroll, even after Bill went back to school in the fall. Building In the early 1960s his firm loaned his services to manage the construction of Heritage Park in the city. When completed, Bill received Alberta's Award for Excellence in Park Development.