Charles Dudley Pratt (1918)

This article appears as originally published in the Summer 1980 issue of the Punahou Bulletin.

Oahuan annuals indicate Dudley was a three year letterman in both football and swimming. He was also on the track team. As captain and center of the 1917 championship football team he was renown for his ability to play in the rain with his “sandpaper hands”. However, swimming was his principal forte and after serving as captain of Punahou's 1918 championship swimming squad he went to Yale where he was a four-year letterman and captain of Yale's 1922 swimming team. While at Yale he swam on three relay teams which set three world records in 1921 and 1922.

An avid swimmer, water safety, and all around sports enthusiast, Dudley officiated at the 1932 Olympics and at ILH swimming meets for years and founded Hawaii's Red Cross water safety program which won him international recognition for teaching lifesaving and water safety techniques. During World War II he taught water safety to hundreds of service men earning the title of “Father of Hawaii's red Cross Water Safety Program.” He was also active in Boy Scouts winning the Silver Antelope and Silver Buffalo awards (BSA's highest). An avid Punahou supporter he rarely missed any football or baseball game or track meet. He served 37 years as a member, and seven years as chairman of Punahou's Board of Trustees until his death in 1970 and was the recipient of Punahou's 1962 'O' in Life award.