S. Prestley Blake

S. Prestley Blake is a co-founder of the Friendly Ice Cream Corporation (known more commonly as "Friendly's"). He attended the Northfield Mount Hermon School and subsequently had Blake Hall named after him and Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

He and his brother Curtis founded the Friendly's national restaurant chain during the Great Depression. Friendly's is now owned by Sun Capital Partners.

The company that Blake founded in Springfield, Massachusetts is now based in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. Blake, now a minority shareholder in Friendly's, lives in Connecticut. He is highly critical of recent management and has actively worked to influence company policy, including through proxy elections in 2007. Since 2006, the 96 year-old Blake has increased his stake in the company and is working with other shareholders to redress alleged executive abuses at Friendly's

The S. Prestley Blake Law Center is the home of Western New England University's School of Law. The $5.5 million expansion of the Law Center, as part of the Western New England University's Transformations campaign, was recently completed before the start of the 2008-09 academic year. Blake donated a substantial amount to the renovation.

On May 1, 2011, Brigantine Media published Blake's autobiography, "A Friendly Life", which describes the early years of Friendly Ice Cream Company as well as Blake's shareholder suit.