By Sara Poirier Correa
Sentinel Reporter
“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”
That isn’t just a phrase on a sign that the late Malcolm S. Pray, Jr., received from his daughter, it’s a motto near and dear to the work done at the not-for-profit Pray Achievement Center. A showcase of classic cars, philanthropic accolades, and a lifetime of success, the center exists to help others succeed, and its directors hope to continue doing that for years to come with the help of the community.
“He wants us to continue doing what he loved so much,” the Greenwich resident’s daughter, Sabrina Raquet, said of her father’s legacy. “He was really passionate about [helping others].”
Raquet serves as president of the Pray Achievement Center, a destination for groups of pre-teen and young teenage children to help them see what they can achieve in life when they put their minds to it. A full-time executive director is on staff there to educate the children on 15 points that Pray believed led to success, including thinking about a career, understanding how business works and studying history and current events.
“My message is clear,” the automobile magnate wrote on the brochure for the center. “There is nothing in life you cannot achieve, and no matter what you do, you will be in the people business. Your reputation is the greatest asset that you have.”
According to the center’s website, Pray moved to Greenwich as a child in 1939 and began his career in the car industry working for Morlee Motors in town in 1955. Shortly thereafter, he started what would become a complex of car dealerships that he ran for 45 years.
Pray Auto Body in Stamford is also a Pray family business that his granddaughter, Courtney Fischer, now runs.
“He was the kindest human being, and he had such empathy for people,” Raquet said of her father, who died in 2013 at age 84 following a stroke. “He had very little tolerance for nonsense.”
Located at 16 Bedford-Banksville Road in Banksville, N.Y., a stone’s throw from the New York-Connecticut border on North Street, Pray opened the Achievement Center in 2001 after he sold the automobile dealerships he had helped build in Greenwich.
“I think primarily because he lost his son… I think it was a way my dad could reach out and help other kids,” Raquet said of why she believes her father started the center. Sabrina’s 17-year-old brother, Malcolm S. Pray III, died in a car accident in 1986.
In addition to Raquet, her sister Melanie “Lilly” Pray, her father’s “adopted” son Philip Richter, her father’s longtime assistant Chris Hughes, and Executive Director Marikay Satryano all are involved with the center.
“Donations are absolutely encouraged,” Raquet told The Greenwich Sentinel, adding that she and the team are encouraging “as many kids as we can on a weekly basis” to visit the center and learn, and need help making the place a continued success.
She said currently there are about four or five groups of students visiting per week, and the center is working with various school systems to establish real programming that would get children to the property more often. Raquet added that she is also interested in starting a speakers’ series with local entrepreneurs, to give a different perspective to the young kids.
She also hosts, along with longtime family friend Jerry Cotrone and various guest curators, private events at the center to raise awareness of the programming and to show off the 48 classic cars on display.
“I think that we have a lot of opportunities out here,” Raquet said.
A lover of classic cars since seeing the 1937 Delahaye at the 1939 World’s Fair—a car he later owned—Pray amassed 80-plus vintage vehicles in his lifetime. Some were sold following his death and others were willed to his grandchildren but are still on display. The still sizable collection serves as a draw for the groups of students and even adults.
Some of the cars in the collection include a 1957 Porsche Speedster worth more than $400,000; a XKE Jaguar Roadster, one of which is on display at the Museum of Modern Art; the 1968 Volkswagen Dune Buggy that Pray taught his kids and grandkids to drive at his Round Hill Road estate; a 1934 Packard; and a 1974 Cadillac El Dorado.
All of the cars—some of which are driven in parades and on display at car shows—are in working order thanks to David Barker, former chief of the Banksville Volunteer Fire Department, who serves as the center’s mechanic.
“We wow [the kids] with the cars, get them interested and point out to them that the man that acquired all these cars was from a family that was hit by the Great Depression, they lost all their money, he grew up with nothing—yet he aspired to have these things, took his passion, which was cars, and used it to make himself very wealthy,” Raquet said of how the cars play into the work of the center.
There is even space, she said, for others with vintage cars to put theirs on display.
Cotrone, who works in real estate and is a volunteer firefighter, volunteers to curate the museum of cars on the property for special events and tour groups. He knows about every car at the center, and has stories to tell about each one.
“Here we basically want everyone to know what Mr. Pray’s mission was—to reach out and mentor the younger people just to let them know that they can make something of themselves,” he said.
Having left an indelible mark on the town with his philanthropy and business acumen, Raquet said she hopes another part of her father’s legacy will be to leave a lasting impression on the local young people, inspiring them to achieve greatness.
For more information, to donate or set up a field trip for students, visit prayachievementcenter.com and call the center at 914-234-0370.
