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Pratt Hobbies celebrated 20 years of operation this summer. Not bad for one crazy old guy in his basement.
I've been flying model rockets since 1960. In the late Seventies I worked for FSI, a rocket company based in Missouri. In between at least ten other careers, I wrote a book entitled "Basics of Model Rocketry," which was published in 1980 and became a best-seller by hobby standards. That led to writing eight other hobby books, while working as a magazine editor and association executive. I've spent time as an IT contractor for the Gummint and various other reasonably honest jobs.
For some strange reason I was inspired to ruin my hobby by making a business out of it. The fact is, I get the same pleasure out of assembling a batch of gadgets that I used to get out of building model planes and rockets. There is a real thrill in exploring new ideas, cobbling something together, figuring out why it didn't work, and figuring out the best way to make 50 of them at a time.
Pratt Hobbies is a family business even though our principal source of child slave labor has left to go to school. Son Brian did a year and a half at Lassen College in Susanville, California, studying gunsmithing, and is now developing a career as an electrical engineer. Daughter Valerie graduated with honors from Randolph-Macon Academy, a 120-year old military college prep school in Front Royal, VA. She is graduating a year early from Messiah College in Pennsylvania to take a job with Ron Meyer's campaign for the 11th district Congressional seat in Virginia.
  
Looking back, I can say it's been a pure pleasure to work with so many enthusiastic people over the years. We have the finest customers in any business I can imagine, and we're all here for the same reason: to have fun. I have boxes with hundreds of letters from teachers, Scoutmasters, school kids, 4-H clubs, every group you can imagine, all excited about their rockets. On the other side of things, NASA is using one of my launch system to fire hybrid motors at Wallops Island. Life is good.
Thanks to you all.
Doug Pratt
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