Robert Paul “Bob” Pratte Sr.,

Attorney with close ties to Snow Summit

Robert Paul Pratte Sr., known by all as Bob, died April 29 at age 77 in La Cañada, his home for 48 years.

He worked in his Pasadena law office the day before his death and returned to the Hook Tree Road home he built in 1968 to play with his grandson, Neal Muir of Pasadena. It was the pattern of his life - working at a job he loved and playing with his children and, in his later years, his grandchildren.

He and his bride of 52 years, Mary Virginia (“Ginny”), maintained a home with extra-long kitchen and dining room tables where their friends and their children’s friends always were welcomed. The attitude extended to Bob’s clients and their families. When clients died, he remained a solid resource for their survivors in financial and legal matters and when they needed a friend.

Snow Summit, the ski resort he represented since 1960, was an important part of his life and a playground for his children and their buddies. He built an A-frame cabin near the Big Bear resort and weekend after weekend, hauled all the La Cañada kids he could fit in his station wagon to the mountains on ski trips.

He was a faithful parishioner of St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church, where his children attended school and his funeral Mass was held Tuesday.

“Family was so important to him and family extended to the church community and the Snow Summit family, business associates and friends,” La Cañada endodontist Dr. John Pratte wrote in a tribute to his father. “Children always were treated like family wherever the sphere of Bob Pratte spread.

“He thrived on aiding others to live life to the fullest and his generosity was boundless. How many people would have entire St. Bede Girls Scout troops to their cabins with wall-to-wall sleeping bags?

“This conjures memories of Bob on skis at Snow Summit leading a train of five to seven kids snaking back and forth down the slopes as he yelled out the turn technique, ‘Down, up and around.’”

Bob attended Inglewood High School, where he was a star running back on the football team. He enlisted in the Navy before the end of his senior year and served as a World War II radar operator aboard a Navy aircraft carrier. After his tour of duty, he enrolled at USC, where he played football until he suffered a knee injury. He graduated from USC and Loyola Law School, which he enjoyed pointing out was not bad for a high school dropout. He met his bride, Mary Virginia, on USC’s Fraternity Row. He was a member of the Phi Psi fraternity and she lived nearby in the Delta Gamma sorority.

“Bob Pratte was very recognizable, the big guy with the crew cut,” Dr. Pratte wrote. “He said over the years, ‘I have kept the same hair style since I entered the Navy and about every 10 years my hair is in style for one year.”

He worked hard at his corporate law practice, beginning with the Mason Contractors Association and expanding to a wide range of clients. He was especially proud of the legal work he performed as part of the construction of the Japanese Trade and Cultural Center in San Francisco. Santa Fe Engineers, a principal client that began as a small enterprise, grew into an international construction company. All the while, he handled adoptions for free.

Bob extended his big-city practice to the small-town atmosphere of Big Bear, a place he loved. He took a concern in the personal lives of business associates and longtime Snow Summit employees. He could be seen chatting about their legal and financial problems even when he bumped into them while picking up doughnuts for his grandchildren.

The way he handled a lawsuit filed against him by La Cañada resident John Cole over issues relating to the sale of a Big Bear mobile home park was typical of his legal style. By the time the case was resolved, they were such good friends that Bob offered the lot near his Big Bear cabin as a settlement. John accepted and built the home he lives in today.

Dr. Pratte wrote that his father’s handling of a legal matter at Sierra Summit, the Huntington Lake resort owned by Snow Summit, was a good example of his creativity and research ability.

“The government blocked the extension of a new chair lift to the top of the hill at the boundary of a wilderness. He discovered that President Roosevelt and John Muir used a marker in drawing the boundaries that extrapolated to several hundred yards on a map. By dividing the line in half, he convinced the government to give them the distance needed for the chair lift.”

Bob made a fateful visit in 1960 to the Los Angeles Athletic Club. He met Tommy Tyndall, who was seeking investors to help with the struggle of starting a ski resort. Bob became his attorney and incorporated Snow Summit in 1961 so Tommy could raise funds by selling stock with lift tickets as the world’s greatest dividends. Bob’s fee? A pair of skis.

Bob remained Snow Summit’s attorney until his death. He built Snow Summit’s second chairlift, which was key to the resort’s expansion, negotiated the purchased of Sierra Summit in Huntington Lake and handled the acquisition of Bear Mountain.

Bob joked that he practiced law to finance his Big Bear building habit. Always with the next project in mind, he rebuilt the Big Bear Airport Terminal and built the Snow Summit Townhouse Estates and the Comstock condominiums at Bear Mountain.

Fun spiced his days of hard work. He insisted that his daughter, Claire Anne, be known as “Claire Annette” because he like the musical pun. The name appears on her driver’s license today. Long before the Home Shopping Network, he loved ordering strange things advertised on late-night television like multi-tool Handy Dandy pliers. His children awakened on Christmas to find they each had their own Popeil Pocket Fisherman under the tree.

He was innovative. Bob recycled the swinging chairs that were replaced on a Snow Summit lift by welding on legs. They stand as patio furniture in homes all over California. His La Cañada home was forested with oak barrel-potted, sea breeze-twisted juniper trees he purchased on a whim while bidding on the old Pacific Ocean Park gondola for the ski resort. He thought he bought one tree, but when a massive flatbed delivery truck pulled up, he discovered that he had bid on the unit price for all the trees on the pier. He solved the goof by surrounding his home with junipers.

Most of all, Bob was devoted to his wife, five children, their spouses and his 10 grandchildren. He delighted in cooking massive breakfasts, lunches and dinners with Mickey Mouse-shaped waffles ranking as his favorite offering for kids. He guided his five children through college. His grandchildren are following the same path Bob and Ginny blazed.

The night of his death, grandchildren who lovingly called him Pappy used the tickets he had bought to take them to a circus that night. He eagerly talked for weeks about the fun they would have. They fulfilled his wish that they enjoy an evening of laughter.

Bob is survived by his wife, Mary Virginia; sons Bob, Frank and John Pratte; daughters Claire Noland and Jeanne Muir; and grandchildren Alexis, Kevin and Shelby Pratte; Lauren, Christina Mee, Gregory and Roxanne Noland; Drake, Lily and Neal Muir. His children’s spouses, Frances Pratte, Michael Noland, Grant Muir and Stacey-Marie Pratte were an integral part of his life.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Bob’s memory may be made to the St. Francis Scholarship Fund, 200 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011; or Sister Wilfrid Scholarship Fund, Mayfield Senior School, 500 Bellefontaine St., Pasadena, CA 91105.