Henry Segerstrom
Henry Thomas Segerstrom was an American philanthropist, entrepreneur, cultural leader, and patron of the arts. Managing Partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, he was the founding chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, now known as the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Life
Henry Thomas Segerstrom was born into a Swedish immigrant family in Santa Ana, California. A farming family, the Segerstroms moved from dairy farming to cultivating alfalfa, eventually specializing in the production and harvesting of lima beans. They would become the largest producers of dried lima beans in the United States.Education
In 1939, Henry T. Segerstrom was named valedictorian of Santa Ana High School where he also served as class president. Months later, at age 17 he enrolled in Stanford University. His education was interrupted by World War II; he joined the war effort after Pearl Harbor, in 1942. After the war and recuperation from his injuries, he returned to Stanford, eventually earning a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Masters of Business Administration from Stanford Business School in 1948. In 2007, he was inducted into Stanford Associates Hall of Fame-Sigma Chi. In February 2008, Stanford University presented him with the prestigious Ernest C. Arbuckle Award for his lifetime of outstanding accomplishments. The highest honor bestowed upon alumni of Stanford's Graduate School of Business, the award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to both managerial excellence and to addressing the changing needs of society.Military service
Enlisting in the U.S. Army on June 24, 1942, Henry T. Segerstrom was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation from the Field Artillery Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma on May 27, 1944. He was deployed to the European front as a second lieutenant, later rising to the rank of captain. In France, he was severely wounded in action during one of the deadliest engagements of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. Facing years of recuperation for shrapnel injuries to his hand, forearm, lower back, and forehead, he returned to California via Dibble General Hospital in Menlo Park. In 1945, Henry T. Segerstrom was awarded the Purple Heart and the European Theater of Operations Ribbon with Battle Star. He remained on active duty until 1947. In 2003, he was inducted into the, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.Business career
Henry Segerstrom had a long and illustrious business career, punctuated by numerous accolades and awards over the course of more than half a century.As managing partner of the family-owned company, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, a commercial real estate and retail management organization established in 1898, he spearheaded commercial development in Orange County, California. Under his guidance, C.J. Segerstrom and Sons transformed a quiet agricultural community into a lively, international destination known as South Coast Metro.
In 1962 C.J. Segerstrom & Sons hired a land-planning consultant to lobby state highway planners to reroute the southern section of the San Diego Freeway through Segerstrom property, the future home of the retail site they planned to develop.This freeway would provide hundreds of thousands of Southern California residents easy access between Los Angeles and San Diego. The residents in Orange County would for the first time have only a short drive to a major shopping center.
The May Co. and Sears vied for the closest location next to the soon to be completed San Diego Freeway. These stores anchored the Center. Henry Segerstrom hired the architectural firm Victor Gruen Associated to design the expansion of the Center. In March 1967, Henry T. Segerstrom, along with his cousin Hal T. Segerstrom, Jr., opened a shopping center called South Coast Plaza in one of the family's lima bean fields in rapidly growing Orange County. The design that Henry undertook had a large range
point of view and long term ambitions, resulting in a retail center that would subsequently become foremost in America.
Early in his business career, Henry T. Segerstrom urged his family to utilize sections of the Segerstrom farm that had been converted by the Army into the Santa Ana Army Air Base. When the government withdrew in 1948, the land was returned to the family along with several warehouses the army had left behind. Under Segerstrom's advocacy, the buildings were leased to the family's first tenants; a cannery in Newport Harbor and a truck and transfer center in Anaheim. Later, when the Carnegie Library in Santa Ana was relocated, Segerstrom encouraged his family to purchase the building and surrounding property. The library was razed and the property was soon developed into what would become the region's first air-conditioned office building.
Later, Henry T. Segerstrom began planning for a major retail development in an unincorporated stretch of land owned by his family located between Santa Ana and Costa Mesa. Envisioning a thriving retail center, the project commenced in advance of the San Diego Freeway. Working closely with Mayor Alvin Pinkley, the Segerstroms agreed to lease water rights to Costa Mesa and in exchange, the town would pay fees equal to the municipal taxes, guaranteeing ample revenues to Costa Mesa from what would become South Coast Plaza.
In 1949, Henry T. Segerstrom was nominated for the Agricultural Stabilization Committee, winning the chairmanship. An advocate of water reclamation and desalination and a leader in assuring protection of natural water resources, Segerstrom secured agreements and obtained a $40 million grant from the federal government. Today, the region's access to water remains predicated on his early efforts. In 1957, he was elected to a four-year term on the Orange County Water District Board. Re-elected six times, he served 16 years as president.
He also became a transit organizer in 1949, bringing in bus lines and advancing the development of road construction and improved traffic flow through the 1990s. Through his involvement with the Orange County Transportation Authority, he was credited as the "father of transit in the region."
Segerstrom received Lifetime Achievement or Legacy Awards, which recognize people who have made significant contributions to the regional business community from, among others: Orange County Business Council ; Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce and South Coast Metro Alliance ; and Coast Magazine Community Awards.
Cultural leadership and philanthropy
Segerstrom contributed his time, resources and leadership as a board member to numerous local, national and international institutions, serving on the boards of Bank of America, Safeco, and Southern California Edison Company, among many others. He sat on the boards of various cultural institutions including the White Nights Foundation of America, the American Friends of Versailles, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Segerstrom also served as the National Chairman of the Business Committee for the Arts, headquartered in New York City. His support for Franco-American friendship and dedication to the preservation of the arts is reflected in his involvement with organizations such as the Versailles Foundation, American Friends of Versailles, and American Friends of the Louvre.By the 1940s there was already a considerable interest in the arts and Orange County was home to many cultural institutions. However, there were no performance spaces or any public art. The Segerstroms owned a sizable amount of land in the Orange County region, generously donating five acres in 1979 to build the foundation for a cultural center that would eventually house three cultural institutions in Orange County—the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the Pacific Symphony, and the Pacific Chorale. By 1986, they all became one center, originally called the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The center expanded and evolved to become a performance art complex, renamed the Segerstrom Center for the Arts on January 12, 2011, in recognition of Segerstrom's generosity, contributions, and dedication.
In 2005, a gift agreement was made for the development of the pedestrian plaza common areas located with Segerstrom Center for the Arts. As part of the Cornerstone Gift Agreement, Segerstrom initially pledged $5 million to the Circle of Honor Gift fund. He subsequently committed another $40 million to the development of the and the overall Segerstrom Center for the Arts. A portion of the Circle of Honor Gift in the amount of $4 million was restricted for the sole purpose of funding construction costs for the pedestrian plaza and walkway areas of Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
A pioneering alliance between Carnegie Hall and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts brought programming from Carnegie Hall's Ancient Paths, Modern Voices festival celebrating Chinese culture to Southern California. This resulted in a West Coast festival presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and prominent partner institutions. This marked the first time that Carnegie Hall's live festival programming reached audiences outside New York City. On June 7, 2010, Carnegie Hall presented him with the fourth Annual Medal of Excellence, which honors an executive whose accomplishments in the corporate sector complement Carnegie Hall's stature as one of the premier performance venues in the world. At the Gala, Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall's Executive and Artistic Director, presented Segerstrom with a Proclamation declaring June 7, 2010, Segerstrom Center for the Arts Day in New York.
Henry Segerstrom also spearheaded a pioneering alliance between the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and the American Ballet Theatre. For nearly every season since the Center’s inception, American Ballet Theatre has brought productions to Orange County’s audiences at Segerstrom Hall while also partnering with the center on commissions and premieres. Over his lifetime, Segerstrom would personally donate more than $100,000 to the company toward the advancement of their global presence and for the establishment of the American Ballet Theatre's William J. Gillespie School.
Public art commissions and exhibitions
As the construction of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall neared completion, Elizabeth and Henry Segerstrom commissioned Richard Serra to create a focal point for center. The 65-feet-high sculpture was installed in 2006.Other artists who created works in Orange County under Segerstrom's sponsorship include: Marion Sampler, a pioeering black designer whose stained glass rotundum dome for South Coast Plaza;
Starting in 2011, curatorial consultant Bonnie Rychlak launched exhibitions focusing on the public art commissions for the plaza and grounds of Segerstrom Center for the Arts, as well as Segerstrom's purchases of artworks by George Rickey, Jean Dubuffet, Joan Miro, Jim Huntington, and Carl Milles. Among the exhibitions directed by Rychlak, artist and former curator of the Noguchi Museum and the Isamu Noguchi Foundation, was On Display in Orange County: Modern and Contemporary Sculpture, which told the story of Segerstrom's impact on the local cultural landscape. The exhibition showcased thirteen sculptures Segerstrom commissioned that are now on public view in the South Coast Metro area between South Coast Plaza and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The show was part of the series of events across Southern California from October 2011 to April 2012 called Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980. Rychlak subsequently authored the publication, Henry T. Segerstrom: The courage of imagination and the development of the arts in Southern California, an expansive testimony to the philanthropist's legacy.
In 2015, following Henry Segerstrom's passing, Rychlak organized the exhibition Courage of Imagination to celebrate his life and legacy. Mounted in a specially designed gallery in Jewel Court at South Coast Plaza, the exhibition chronicled Segerstorm's life story through dozens of vintage photographs, archival videos, informative descriptions and a selection of major sculptures by Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet and Joan Miró.
Death
After a short illness, Segerstrom died in Newport Beach, California, on February 20, 2015, at the age of 91.Legacy
Segerstrom is recognized for his service as founding chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and his role in establishing the Centre for Social Innovation at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.The Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Segerstrom Hall, and Segerstrom Avenue in Santa Ana are named after him. Segerstrom High School in Santa Ana, which opened in 2005, is also named after him.
In April 2023, PBS broadcast Segerstrom: Imagining the Future. The streaming production was billed as "the story of a man who believed in great possibilities and inspired those around him."
Selected Awards
Throughout his life, from 1971 when he was inducted into the U.S. Army Artillery Hall of Fame, to January 2024 when he was one of ten luminaries inducted into the Orange County Hall of Fame, Henry T. Segerstrom was the recipient of many honors and awards. He was awarded Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Laws at Western State University and Whittier Law School. Among numerous other noteworthy accolades, he was awarded in 1988 the Honorary title of Commander and bestowed with the Order of the Polar Star by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. In 1995, he was presented the prestigious Tree of Life Award of the Jewish National Fund by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for his efforts in developing desalination plants in Southern California.A selected list of additional honors and awards includes:
1982 First Patron of the Arts Award, Orange County Master Chorale; First Golden Baton Award, Philharmonic Society of Orange County; Headliner of the Year in Business, Orange County Press Club.
1988 Leonardo da Vinci Award, California Confederation of the Arts; Distinguished Achievement Award, National Business Committee for the Arts ; Tony Award Winner, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Elected as Second Member - Honorary Board
1993 The BCA Leadership Award, National Business Committee for the Arts.
2000 Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award, Community Visionary, Arts in Orange County
2005 Legacy Award, Orange County Tourism Industry Arts; Visionary Award, Ballet Pacifica; Legacy Prix d'Honneur, Business Committee for the Arts, Orange County.
2008 The Ernest C. Arbuckle Award, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Founder's Circle, Stanford University; Julian Shulman Communication Award, Woodbury University
2010 Carnegie Hall's fourth Annual Medal of Excellence and declaration of June 7, 2010, as Segerstrom Center for the Arts Day in New York
2012 The Dizzy Feet Foundation Award, in recognition of dance education across the United States, presented by the Music Center and Ovation;
2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce and South Coast Metro Alliance
2016 Hall of Fame inductee, Stanford Professionals in Real Estate