William A. Pratt, M.D.

2002 VMS Physician Award for
Community Service

Dr. Pratt was the 2002 recipient of the Vermont Medical Society Physician Award for Community Service.   The main criterion for the award is that the “recipient has compiled record of community service, which, apart from his/her specific identification as a physician, reflects well on the profession.”  Dr. Pratt’s service to the Rutland community, both as an internist and through other volunteer work, exemplifies the role of the Vermont physician.

Dr. Pratt was born and raised in Rutland.  He attended UVM both for his undergraduate and medical studies.  For two years between his internship and residency he served in the Army Medical Corps.  He completed his residency in 1948 and returned to Rutland to open a private practice in 1949.  He describes the extent to which medicine changed during his career.  He clearly remembers during his internship at Mary Hitchcock in 1944, the first time physicians successfully treated someone with pneumococcal meningitis – by administering shots of penicillin into the spinal cord every four hours.   He was the only board certified internist in Rutland for 20 years, making house calls and accepting what payment patients could offer.  By the time he retired in 1991, antibiotics, office visits and hassling with insurance companies had become routine.

After his official retirement, Dr. Pratt became more involved volunteering with the school system.  He was a substitute teacher for four to five years at the Stafford Technical School and Rutland High School, often working with children in the special education track.  He also taught reading to second grade students, exciting them with made-up character voices and challenging them to learn the meaning of new words, such as “palindrome.”  He has also been involved with his community through the Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, the Country Club, the Free Library and singing with a barbershop quartet, “The Four Quacks,” with three fellow physicians!   He also “discusses and solves” the worlds’ problems with a local and little-known think tank called ROMEO or Retired Old Men Eating Out.

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