The last Pearl Harbor survivor from Fresno has died. ‘He exemplified that generation’

William “Bill” Pratt was the last of Fresno’s Pearl Harbor survivors.

He was a 19-year-old sailor on the USS Nevada when the ship was attacked Dec. 7, 1941. He was alone and in the dark in the ship’s shaft alley as the battleship was bombed and torpedoed.

“I thought the end had come,” Pratt told the Hometown Heroes radio show in 2021.

“I could do nothing but sit there and wait.”

Sixty of his shipmates died and more than 100 were wounded in the surprise attack, which killed 2,401 Americans and ultimately pushed the country into World War II. Pratt spent the rest of the war on a submarine in the Pacific and afterward moved to Fresno where he started a business in metal manufacturing.

He died in Fresno on Jan. 23 at the age of 103. A funeral service with military honors was held at Belmont Memorial Park on Tuesday.

Exemplified a generation

“He was one of the last witnesses to a day that changed the world,” says Hometown Heroes host Paul Loeffler.

In all, it is estimated that fewer than 20 Pearl Survivors remain nationwide, according to Loeffler.

Of the surviving sailors who served on the USS Nevada, only two remain. One lives in Southern California and the other in Washington state, Loeffler says.

Pratt’s brother, Basil Paul Pratt, who also served on the ship during the attack, died in 2006.

As those survivors inevitably pass, “it’s up to the rest of us to keep their stories alive,” Loeffler says. “To carry the torch, to use the Navy terms.”

Loeffler interviewed Pratt at his home just before his 100th birthday and says the man came across with a humility and a love for country that is indicative of most World War II survivors.

He also had their shared sense of resilience.

“There’s no feeling sorry for yourself,” Loeffler says.

“I think his life reflected that.”

Loeffler has been interviewing World War II veterans, both locally and across the county, for nearly two decades and was surprised to realize he’d never heard Pratt’s name or story before the interview.

But that too, is indicative of the generation.

“Like so many of them,” Loeffler says, “he wasn’t looking for attention.”

Pratt is survived by Pauline his wife of 70 years; a son, William Brian Pratt; granddaughter, Andrea Pratt Ward; and great-grandsons James William Ward and Henry Thomas Ward.