Friendly's Co-Founder S. Prestley Blake Dies At 106

SOMERS, CT — S. Prestley Blake, an icon in New England business lore as co-founder of the Friendly Ice Cream Corp. more than 85 years ago, passed away Thursday. He was 106.

His death was announced early Thursday evening on social media by his niece, Holly Thrasher Schroeder. She wrote:

"I thought the town of Somers would want to know.....my dear Uncle Pres (S. Prestley Blake) has just joined his beloved brother, my Uncle Curt (Curtis L. Blake) in heaven about 3 hours ago! Now, all those in heaven will get to enjoy those awesome big beefs and AWFUL AWFULS and some of the best ice cream ever! May they continue on together in heaven, as here on earth, until we join them again one day! I love you, Uncle Pres! You were an amazing man! At age 106! We will celebrate your life! Prayers and Godspeed!"

Blake, a New Jersey native who graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School and Trinity College, co-founded an ice cream shop with his younger brother Curtis in Springfield, Mass. in 1935, during the Great Depression. According to the Friendly's website, "The name was a promise that the small ice cream shoppe would be a friendly place for families to enjoy a meal together. We still believe in that promise."

The brothers began by selling two scoops of ice cream for a nickel. In 2014, the younger Blake told the Hemmings Daily, "We wanted to create a place where ice cream was our whole business: We'd do one thing and do it right. One of us was always working, and we just had the one car. We went back and forth; when we closed our first shop at midnight, one of us would stay at the store and start making ice cream for the next day, and the other went home and slept. Then the ice cream maker would come home and sleep around 7 a.m. Then that one would go back to help with the noon hour, because we put in hamburgers and coffee in the fall."

At its peak, Friendly's had about 850 restaurants. In 1979, after working together for more than 43 years, the Blakes sold the business to Hershey Foods for $164 million.

Pres Blake was known for his philanthropy throughout eight decades of public life. The S. Prestley Blake Law Center at the Western New England University School of Law is named in his honor, as is the Blake Student Center at Northfield Mount Hermon. Springfield College renamed Wilbraham Hall as Herbert P. Blake Hall, in honor of his father, following a sizable donation in 2006.

Kathy Picard of Ludlow, Mass., a sexual abuse survivor who authored the book "Life with My Idiot Family," posted a photo of herself on Facebook riding on a John Deere with Blake. She told Patch it was taken on a tour of his property around 2013.

"He was 99 years old in this picture," she said. "I’ll never forget this visit. He gave me the property tour. I had him sign his book and shared my book with him. In silence, he gave me a donation for my cause. My first job was Friendly's and I still have the Friendly's pin of being friendly I received. I won the Pynchon Award and invited him. He called my house to tell me he wouldn’t available, that he was going on his boat. I took many pics this day, with his permission of course, of his lovely home. Meeting his wife, bringing her flowers. This day I will never forget."

George Arab of Enfield, who managed Friendly's locations for 25 years, told Patch, "Pres was a very charismatic man full of never-ending energy. When Pres would describe his love for the ice cream business and how it was made, his passion was overwhelming, making you want a cone right there and then. He treated and protected the business as if it were his child. We were all saddened when he and Curtis decided to sell. Pres's love to create spilled into the construction of Monticello in Somers. I saw him last on this site when he was turning 100. As usual full of energy and excitement. He will be missed by many."

Linda and Phil Roland of Somers told Patch, "I have very fond memories of this great man. I remember bringing my boys to his pond for ice skating out back of his home. He was very proud of the memorial warming house he built for the late JC Penney next to the pond."

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