Stewart Prestley Blake was born in Jersey Metropolis, NJ, on November 26, 1914, to Herbert Prestley Blake and Ethel (Stewart) Blake. He grew up in Springfield, the place his father labored for the watchmaker Normal Electrical Time Firm; his mom was a automobile fanatic who inspired her kids’s fascination with automobiles. He purchased a Ford T mannequin when he was 16, utilizing the earnings from a newspaper run. (One other brother, Hollis, died at age 2.)
Blake attended Trinity Faculty in Hartford, Conn., For a 12 months earlier than returning to Springfield to open his ice cream parlor together with his brother Curtis.
The Blake brothers closed the shop throughout World Battle II to hitch the struggle effort. Mr.Blake went to work for what’s now Westinghouse Electrical Company, tracing leaky digital tools and giving it to struggle producers. (Curtis Blake served within the Air Power in Nice Britain.)
After promoting Pleasant within the Seventies, Mr.Blake traveled the world in crusing and jet Concorde boats and grew his assortment of basic automobiles, which at its peak included about two dozen Rolls-Royces. Certainly one of them, she wrote, appeared in Liza Minnelli’s movie “Inform Me You Love Me, Junie Moon” (1970), wherein she made an look as a driver.
Blake celebrated its a centesimal anniversary in 2014 by constructing a modernization duplicate of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Plantation in Virginia, in Somers, Conn. Costing almost $ 8 million to construct, the mansion was bought to public sale sale for about $ 2.1 million in 2016.
Their first two marriages, with Della Deming and Setsu Matsukata, resulted in divorce.
Mr. Blake died at a hospital in Stuart, the place he lived. Along with his son, he’s survived by his spouse, Helen Blake; a sister, Betsy Melvin; a daughter, Nancy Yanakakis; a number of grandchildren; 16 grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and 12 grandchildren.
“I began small, I labored exhausting, and I managed to get past my wildest desires,” Mr. Blake muttered on the finish of his memoirs. “I received out of the ice cream enterprise and sat for fairly some time till I needed to get off the bed and get again in place. That battle is over. I am 96 years outdated and I am formally retired. Possibly.” .
