George Forbes Pratt

With heavy hearts, we announce that George Forbes Pratt passed away April 30, 2025 at Sechelt General Hospital surrounded by his family. Born in Minden, Ontario to Robert Henry and Edna Mae Pratt, George is survived and will be deeply missed by his children Victoria, Geoff (Margot), Nancy (Steve Goodman), grandchildren Jake (Jen), Angela, Stuart, Sam (Sydney) and great-granddaughter Sage. Brother Donald Howard Pratt also survives him. George is pre-deceased by wife Marjorie by exactly one month—his life-long partner from the beginning of his adult life as a young sailor in Fort Churchill, foretelling an adventuresome future in which they were partners throughout.

He was a mentor and friend to his children, influencing their lives and achievements enormously. He was a deep inspiration to his grandchildren, nieces and nephews who love him deeply and will miss him dearly. The entire family lovingly called George by what he was—Grandad—the patriarch of the Pratt family who was a great teacher in many forms, had an ability to draw out one’s strengths, imparted great values and set our collective moral compass.

A man of arts and letters, he was a great thinker and true creator in every way his mind could find an outlet. He was musical as well, having a lovely voice and played piano, guitar and banjo. Entrepreneurial and innovative—as much as he was creative in the arts—with wife Marjorie, they had many wonderful business ventures.

His naval duty took him from Ottawa, where he trained as a radio operator for the Royal Canadian Navy, to his first posting in Ft. Churchill. Having met Marjorie in Toronto between training and posting, their romance grew quickly and Marge travelled by train to Churchill where they wed in February 1958, foretelling an adventuresome life ahead together. There, daughter Victoria was born and mother and baby were brought home in an army truck to barracks and an outhouse for a toilet in November. George took a job cooking and also drove taxi to earn supplemental pay. The next posting in Halifax, Nova Scotia was the birthplace of Geoffrey which took place while George was out on ocean exercises in the Atlantic.

His civilian career started with a sequence of sales positions in the 60’s selling for the diverse corporations of London Life Insurance, RCA Victor and the Allen Organ Company. He was the proverbial door-to-door salesman and he was good at it. It was also an era when Canada’s corporate world was concentrated in the East and the West was barely emerging. The next job with Aircraft Marine Products took them West in 1965 shortly after Nancy was born in Weston, Ontario. The family made the journey in a comfortable late-model sedan, whence young Vicky and Geoff flanked Nancy’s bassinet in the back seat—an era when car seats were non-existent. The young family marvelled at the beauty and landscape every mile of the way, backed up by Dad’s memorable explanations of geography and history. First stop was Calgary and next stop Vancouver over a two-year period.

Back to Ontario, an urge to be closer to family drew them to rural life in Haliburton, Ontario near his hometown, where George’s first entrepreneurial venture began with brother Fred, a talented carpenter and builder, taking after their father Robert, a stone mason and carpenter who built many cottages, homesteads and renowned lodges in the Kawartha Lakes District. Cedarway was born as a small a furniture-making company with the idea of building cabinets and furniture catering to the growing cottage country construction activity. George was not only the salesman but started designing and creating things, among which was the “Bobolink”, a wooden sled based on the traditional Arctic dog-sled that could be fastened to a Ski-Doo, a phenomenon that had just been introduced to snow-country at the time. After a valiant effort with too few consumers in the small town for such a business to survive, George and Marjorie set sights on Toronto to recoup losses and he re-entered sales with Aircraft Marine Products.

Seeking sobriety in 1968, he would meet a pivotal person—Paul Binkley, his AA sponsor—and through this connection he entered a whole other world and phase of life. Recognizing his sales talent and enchanting intellect, Paul recommended him to work for a certain architect, Court Noxon of Metalsmiths who was designing and producing elite contemporary furniture in Canada. This opened the doors to interior design, architecture and the art world igniting already present talents of drawing and carving. During this period, he met E.B. Cox, a renowned Canadian stone sculptor and soon became his protégé, carving stone in his shop. He quickly obtained his own equipment to be able to work in his own garage on Fairlawn Avenue, North Lawrence Park on evenings and weekends. He started doing small exhibitions of his work inviting interior designers to whom he was detailing Metalsmiths furniture for large office towers and government installations in Toronto and across Canada, charmingly convincing them to spec his work in the lobbies and boardrooms of their clients.

Binkley worked in a competitive company and, as their friendship grew, they incubated the idea of combining efforts and setting up an agency in Vancouver where they could represent their respective employers and “work the West” as office buildings emerged in the metropolises. George continued to create an enormous amount of sculpture and sell it successfully and, in the late 70’s made a friendly exit, leaving Paul to carry on the business while he dedicated himself to making a living from his art. His path would cross with other contemporaries and, especially influential was master jeweller Karl Stittgen and wife Gaby who became great friends with George and Marge.

And then there was always room for other ventures to occupy his creative and entrepreneurial mind. He and Marge started other businesses like Mail and Copy Centre with Nancy, one of the first of its kind in Vancouver, then George was enchanted by a little company shuttling electric ferries in Granville Island which, eventually, inspired the company that son Geoff and family operate to this day—Aquabus Ferries—where George loved to contribute design for vessels and their graphics which yielded the ever-recognizable lasting rainbow logo seen on their fleet in False Creek by millions each year.

In between, they were investors, especially Marge who partnered with Gaby Stittgen in house and condo flipping. They were avid travellers with Vicky, then a travel agent, writing tickets to places like Belize, Galapagos Islands, Dominican Republic and Mexico when such destinations had been uncommon to visit and hard to reach. That opened another door of the family’s deep connection to Puerto Vallarta and Bucerias.

They fell in love with the Sunshine Coast, acquiring a cottage in the late ‘90s and then an acreage where they resided for the last two decades, and where George could be found be found in his workshop sculpting fine art for many to enjoy. His work came to be widely collected in North America by private individuals and corporations and an impressive number of large works have been commissioned for public display and can be seen to this day across the country. As well, George sculpted many presentation works for foreign dignitaries, HRH Prince Phillip, Boris Yeltsin, Bill Clinton among them.

He mentored many burgeoning artists generously sharing his knowledge in his workshop and teaching at workshops across Canada and the Pacific Northwest, sparking the talent of many people.

George was to encounter a series of cancer diagnoses from 2006 to 2018, which he tackled with the same purpose-driven attitude and tenacity he did with everything in life. The will to live over the alternative was always fuelled by his relentless desire to create. Overcoming the complications of these illnesses seemed, many times, a miracle to his family and friends such that he was known as the Energizer Bunny who took a licking and kept on ticking,

George and Marge’s harmonious talents, interests, energy, social personalities and their kindness to others, attracted one of the most impressive circles of friends and acquaintances.

Ever proud of the accomplishments of his children, their spouses and grandchildren, he has contributed phenomenally to their lives and successes. His legacy will live on in them.

The Pratt family greatly appreciates the outreach and kindnesses shown to George and all of them by his immense circle of friends, acquaintances and patrons of his works. Special thanks goes to the caregivers of Sechelt Hospital who treated both George and Marjorie.

A joint memorial service for George and Marjorie Pratt will be held at the Granville Island Hotel on Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 2:30 p.m.

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