

Troy Lynn Pritt was
born in Elkins, West Virginia. When he was in the second grade, his family moved
to Baltimore, Maryland and he grew up there in Armistead Gardens, a low-rent
housing project.
He joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves the summer
between his junior and senior year of high school. After graduation, he went on
six months active duty to Parris Island, SC and Camp Lejeune, NC. Returning to
Baltimore he was employed as a draftsman by Western Electric Company.
In September 1958 he joined the U.S. Air Force, and
was trained as a Russian linguist at Syracuse University. He married Lorraine
Catherine Barrows of Baltimore and they had an apartment in Syracuse, NY. He
spent the entire year of 1960 on Shemya Island, Alaska. While he was stationed
at that remote site, Paul Troy Pritt, their first son was born to Troy and
Lorraine in Baltimore, MD. From there Troy Lynn was transferred to Ft. Meade,
Maryland. In September 1961 the Air Force had a drastic downsizing and he was
discharged to go to seminary.
From September 1961 to December 1962 he was a student
at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Philadelphia, PA. In January 1963 he
joined the U.S. Army and was sent to the Army Language School at Presidio of
Monterey, CA for intermediate Russian language instruction. While there he and
his wife had their second son, Mark Davenport Pritt, who was born at Ft. Ord,
CA.
From California he was transferred to Menwith Hill
Station in Yorkshire, England. Their third son, David Brainerd Pritt was born in
Harrogate, Yorkshire, England. During the time he was in the Air Force and Army,
Troy Lynn had been taking college courses on the military bases through
University College, University of Maryland. He was transferred to Ft. Meade,
Maryland in the fall of 1967 and was able to attend courses on the campus of
University of Maryland to complete his degree. In May 1968 he received the
Bachelor of Arts degree ‘with honors’ from the University of Maryland.
He left the Army in the fall of 1968 and returned to
the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Philadelphia. He graduated from there in May
1970 with a B.D. degree which was later converted to a M.Div.
He was ordained by Guyandotte Presbytery, Presbyterian
Church,U.S. and began his first pastorate in Putnam County, West Virginia at the
Eleanor, Pliny, and Winfield Presbyterian Churches. He preached in all three
churches each Sunday morning. His next pastorate was a single church, Parsons
Presbyterian Church in Tucker County, West Virginia. While there he joined a
West Virginia Army National Guard unit at Camp Dawson in Kingwood, WV. In 1975
he accepted a call to pastor two churches in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church, Fairlea A.R.P. Church in Greenbrier County, West Virgina and New Lebanon
A.R.P. Church in Monroe County, West Virginia. Also that year a fourth son was
born to Troy Lynn and Lorraine, Andrew Caleb Pritt.
While pastor of Fairlea and New Lebanon Churches he
completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Weston State Hospital. He
then began work on his Doctor of Ministry degree at Austin Presbyterian
Theological Seminary, Austin, Texas.
In 1982 he accepted the call to pastor the Covington
A.R.P. Church in Covington, TN. He resumed his studies for Doctor of Ministry at
Erskine Theological Seminary in Due West, SC. During their residence in
Covington, Lorraine pursued studies for a nursing license. She passed the state
license exam with one of the highest scores. She became a Licensed Practical
Nurse. At first she did home care nursing for terminally ill patients. Then she
worked in a nursing home in Covington.
In the fall of 1987 Troy Lynn accepted the call to the
Edwards Rogers Larger Parish in Bradley County, Arkansas. This was three rural
churches. Two belonged to the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. and one belonged to
the Associate Reformed Presbyterian General Synod. He continued work on his
doctorate and in June 1990 received the Doctor of Ministry degree from Erskine
Theological Seminary. In 1996 Troy Lynn and Lorraine bought a house in Warren,
Arkansas where they still live today.
At the end of 2000 he retired. For most of 2001 he was
interim minister of the Ruston Presbyterian Church in Ruston, Louisiana. Since
then he has preached on Sundays in small Presbyterian churches without a pastor.
After he retired, he took a correspondence course on
writing fiction and then two creative writing courses at University of Arkansas,
Monticello. He has had two short stories published in “Between the Lines”, an
article published in GOLDENSEAL magazine, and in 2008 published his first book,
Troy Wye Pritt In His Own Words He is a member of the Fiction Writers of Central
Arkansas, the Western Maryland Railway Historical Society, and the Oral History
Association, Mid-Atlantic Region.