FEATURE DONOR PROFILE S. Prestley Blake, 1914-2021 By Sean Valentine Director of Stewardship & Donor Relations
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. Prestley Blake, a name well known by anyone associated with Wilbraham & Monson Academy, died at the age of 106 on Feb. 11, 2021. He was, and his wife Helen Davis Blake still is, a remarkable philanthropist unquestionably dedicated to causes in Western Massachusetts and to WMA specifically. The long list of lives the Blakes have positively impacted is impossible to overstate. In fact, their generosity frequently exceeded normal expectations into the realm of savior for some, including WMA. In 1989, the financial standing of WMA could have been termed dire. The Academy’s merger 18 years earlier had yet to deliver on the intended outcome: to take two weakened schools and create a single robust institution. Annual fundraising and tuition fees were barely meeting the budget, to say nothing of the rapidly compounding interest on $1.8 million in loans needed to keep the school afloat over the previous few years. The closure of the Academy - and thus the end of 185 years of educational history in the Pioneer Valley - was a very real possibility. It was during this critical year that Mr. Richard C. Malley, newly appointed as Head of School, sought an introduction to Mr. Blake. He got it by way of Eric W. Anderson, a WMA Trustee, alumni parent and then CFO of Friendly’s.
From left: Pres Blake, Helen Blake and former Head of School Richard C. Malley.
“I went into Mr. Blake’s office and told him the new Head wanted to meet him,” Mr. Anderson said of the co-founder of Friendly’s Ice Cream. “Pres said, ‘OK, bring him by.’ I reminded Pres that Mr. Malley was likely going to ask him for money, to which he answered, ‘Sure, well, bring him in all the same!’ During our meeting, Pres inquired of Malley how the school was doing financially, and upon being told of our difficulties, he sat back in his chair and said, ‘Let me think about that.’” A few days later, Mr. Blake contacted Mr. Malley with a proposal. If the school could raise or source $800,000, he would donate $1 million; the debt could be cleared and the debt service invested back into the school.
RESTAURANT & ICE CREAM
It worked.
EST. 1935
Mr. Blake’s vote of confidence in WMA was the force needed to nudge the Academy away from the precipice. His challenge sent a clear and powerful message: a jolt of lightning through alumni, parents and creditors alike. In a letter to Mr. Blake in August 1990, Mr. Malley wrote, “I don’t believe it is an exaggeration to say that without (you) we would not be opening this fall.” Within four years, through generous donations and renegotiation with banking institutions, Mr. Blake’s challenge was completed. WMA had passed through the most difficult financial period it had ever faced. Said current Head of School Brian P. Easler, “He literally saved the school.” WILBRAHAM & MONSON ACADEMY
BLAKE MIDDLE SCHOOL
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THE GIVING REPORT 2020-2021
Certainly, this was Mr. Blake’s most impactful contribution to the Academy, but it was not his first and by no means was it his last. In the mid-1970s, he - along with Headmaster Francis M. Casey and WMA Trustees Richard G. Dooley and E. Carroll Stollenwerck - had been instrumental in soliciting The Wallace Foundation to help support the completion of what is now Wallace-Blake Dormitory. Mr. Blake had issued a smaller challenge during the Academy’s “New Decade Fund” in the early 1980s, and had already funded scholarships to the WMA Middle School by the time of his introduction to Mr. Malley.
