Henry T Segerstrom

Henry T. Segerstrom, the courtly real estate developer and arts philanthropist who was instrumental in transforming Orange County from a provincial bedroom community into a nexus of culture and commerce, died in February 2015. He was 91. Segerstrom transformed his family's agricultural fields in Costa Mesa into South Coast Plaza, which opened with 78 stores in 1967 in a sleepy, largely undeveloped area. Segerstrom saw the county's wealth growing, and with it, an appetite for expensive things. Over the years, personally courting high-end retailers such as Barney's New York, Armani and Chanel, he oversaw the shopping center's transformation into one of the nation's premier retail complexes. Segerstrom would for his whole life introduce himself as a farmer. The grandson of family patriarch C.J. Segerstrom, and the scion of the nation's largest independent lima bean producer, Segerstrom was born in Santa Ana on April 5, 1923. He attended Santa Ana High School, where he was senior class president. He joined the Army as a private at age 19, attended Officer Candidate School and fought with a field artillery unit during World War II. After leaving military service as a captain, he attended Stanford University, where he received a bachelor's degree and an MBA. Soon he was part of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, a family business focused on agriculture. In 1979, his family donated five acres of land and at least $6 million to build the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, which opened seven years later across the street from South Coast Plaza. Many consider the construction of the complex, which was renamed in 2011 to honor Segerstrom, a pivotal point for the arts in Orange County. The business headquarters of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons faces remains of the family's farming operation and the two-story farmhouse that Segerstrom's grandfather built in 1915. For 31 years, Segerstrom was married to his first wife, Yvonne, with whom he had two sons, Toren and Anton, and a daughter, Andrea. Months after their divorce in 1981, he married his second wife, Renee, who became one of Orange County's most successful arts fundraisers. The marriage lasted nearly 20 years, until her death in 2000 at age 72. Soon after, a daughter she had disowned, Mikette Von Issenberg, sued Segerstrom demanding a portion of her late mother's fortune and claiming Segerstrom was holding it hostage. The case settled quietly. A month after Renee Segerstrom's death, Segerstrom, then 77, married his third wife, Elizabeth Macavoy, a 45-year-old clinical psychologist. In addition to his wife, Segerstrom is survived by his three children, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.