Résumé

Employee, US Government, Civil Works Administration, Keosauqua, IA, 1933-1934.

Architect, United States Bureau of Reclamation, Guernsey, WY, 1934-1937.

Architectural Foreman, National Park Service, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Yellowstone, WY, 1937-1940. He worked as an "architectural foreman" at Yellowstone National Park according to the 1940 US Census. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; Roll: m-t0627-04577; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 24-1, accessed 04/21/2018.) In his obituary, it was said of this experience: "During the Depression, Mr. Pray taught construction skills to young people in the Civilian Conservation Corps." (See Janet I-Chin Tu, Seattle Times.com. "Roland Pray, 87, Serious Architect Who Loved Family, Clam-Digging." published 12/28/1996, accessed 09/14/2022.)

Architect, Gates Rubber Company, Denver, CO, 1940-1941.

Architect, Sanderson and Porter, Charlotte, NC, 1941-1942.

Architect, Wyatt Cephus Hedrick, Architect, Fort Worth, TX, 1943. Both Roland Pray and his later business partner, Craig A. Harmon (1911- 1976) worked in the office of Wyatt C. Hedrick (1888-1964) in Fort Worth, TX, in 1943.

Architect, Boeing Company, Seattle, WA, 1944.

Architect, Naramore, Brady, Bain and Johanson (NBBJ), Seattle, WA, 1945-1946.

Partner, Harmon, Pray and Detrich, Architects, Seattle, WA, 1948-1975.

Professional Activities

Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA). Pray joined the AIA in 1945.

College

B.S.Arch. Engineering, Iowa State College, Ames, IA, 1928-1932. At Iowa State, Pray joined the Delta Tau Delta (ΔΤΔ) Fraternity. Pray had broad intellectual interests. His obituary recalled: "He shared his wide-ranging intellectual interests - from birds to Native-American history to plant biology - with his children and grandchildren, and emphasized the importance of education." (See Janet I-Chin Tu, Seattle Times.com. "Roland Pray, 87, Serious Architect Who Loved Family, Clam-Digging." published 12/28/1996, accessed 09/14/2022.)

Relocation

Born in Des Moines, IA, Roland G. Pray, Sr., spent his formative years in the town of Lake City, but he moved many times during early adulthood, particularly during the financially precarious years of the Depression. In the late 1930s, Roland worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in camps at Yellowstone National Park and other places in the West. The obituary of Roland Gilbert Pray, Jr., said of his early years: "The young family returned to their two-room cabin on the edge of Yellowstone Park where Roland's father served as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Architectural Forman. The family moved to several CCC outposts before settling in Seattle's Laurelhurst neighborhood." (See Seattle Times.com, "Roland Gilbert Pray," published 05/01/2022, accessed 05/02/2022.)

Following the tumult of World War II, he settled in Seattle, WA, where he stayed for the rest of his life.

The 1910 US Census recorded that Roland G. Pray lived with his family in Lake City, IA, where his father worked as a physician. The Prays lived on Main Street in Lake City. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Lake Ward 4, Calhoun, Iowa; Roll: T624_394; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 0031; FHL microfilm: 1374407, accessed 04/21/2018.) The family continued to live in Lake City a decade later. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Lake, Calhoun, Iowa; Roll: T625_480; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 37, accessed 04/21/2018.) He continued to live in Lake City with his family as enumerated in the 1925 Iowa State Census. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007, accessed 04/21/2018.)

In 1938, while he worked at Yellowstone National Park, his son, Roland, Jr., was born in in Livingston, MT. The US Census recorded that the Pray Family lived at 85 Mammoth Street in Yellowstone National Park in 1940. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; Roll: m-t0627-04577; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 24-1, accessed 04/21/2018.)

From at least 1948 until 1958, Roland and Bernice Pray lived at 3396 46th Avenue NE in Seattle. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1948, p. 1108 and Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1958, p. 1238.) Bernice and Roland lived at this address until the ends of their lives in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He died at age 88 of pneumonia and was buried in the Acacia Memorial Park and Funeral Home in Lake Forest Park, WA. (See Janet I-Chin Tu, Seattle Times.com. "Roland Pray, 87, Serious Architect Who Loved Family, Clam-Digging." published 12/28/1996, accessed 09/14/2022.)

Parents

His father was Gilbert Leroy Pray (born 12/08/1875 in IA-d. 08/19/1939 in Lake City, IA), his mother, Frances Ellen Moseley, (born 10/05/1886 in IA-d. 04/05/1948 in Los Angeles, CA). They married on 10/05/1904 in Lake City, IA. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. Iowa, Select Marriages Index, 1758-1996 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014, accessed 04/21/2018.) Gilbert's father was from IN, his mother, IA. Francis's parents also came from the Midwest, her father being from IL, her mother from MI.

Both the 1900 and 1910 US Censuses listed Gilbert's occupation as a physician. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Lake, Calhoun, Iowa; Page: 25; Enumeration District: 0035, accessed 04/21/2018.) He seems to have had a change of career sometime between 1910 and 1918. His World War I draft registration card stated his occupation as a farmer, and the US Census of 1920 corroborated that. In the 2022 obituary of Gilbert Pray, Jr., it noted that the Pray Family still owned agricultural land in the Midwest: It stated: "Away from UW work, Roland found time to manage the family's mid-western farming interests." (See Seattle Times.com, "Roland Gilbert Pray January 9, 1938-April 15, 2022," published 05/01/2022, accessed 09/13/2022.)

Frances maintained the household. By 1910, she had had two children, although only Roland survived. A daughter passed away in infancy in 1905. Another daughter, Marion Frances Pray Peterson was born in 1911 (born 09/30/1911-d. 05/09/2006).

Spouse

He married Bernice Petersen (born 09/29/1910 in IA-d. 05/25/1993 in Seattle, WA). In 1996, the Seattle Times noted of his marriage to Bernice: "He graduated with a degree in architecture from Iowa State College, where he met his future wife, Bernice. The two kept their marriage a secret for a year because at the time, schoolteachers in Iowa were not allowed to be married. Bernice taught home economics at a school in Iowa. After their secret was out, the two took a three-month honeymoon, touring the U.S. in their Model A Ford." (See Janet I-Chin Tu, Seattle Times.com. "Roland Pray, 87, Serious Architect Who Loved Family, Clam-Digging." published 12/28/1996, accessed 09/14/2022.)

Children

He and Bernice had a daughter, Mary B. Pray (born c. 1935 in WY) and a son, Roland Gilbert Pray, Jr., (born 01/09/1938 in Livingston, MT-d. 04/15/2022).

Roland, Jr., attended Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Everett Junior College and the University of Washington. He studied architecture at the University of Washington (UW) and would later work for the school's Physical Plant for 35 years. Roland, Jr., married Marilynn Newburn in 1966 and together they two sons, Mark Pray and Matt Pray. (See Seattle Times.com, "Roland Gilbert Pray," published 05/01/2022, accessed 05/02/2022.)

A granddaughter, Linda Cooley, became a landscape architect working for the State of Washington's Department of Transportation. (See Janet I-Chin Tu, Seattle Times.com. "Roland Pray, 87, Serious Architect Who Loved Family, Clam-Digging." published 12/28/1996, accessed 09/14/2022.)

Biographical Notes

His World War II draft registration card listed Roland Pray as standing 5-feet, 10-inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with gray eyes and brown hair. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 193, accessed 04/21/2018.)

SSN: 524-18-9599.

• Lake City, IA (Architect's Birth)
  Lake City, IA 51449

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