Renee Segerstrom, Patron of O.C. Arts, Is Dead at 72

Renee Mary Segerstrom, a leading patron of the arts in Orange County and the wife of pioneer businessman Henry T. Segerstrom, died Wednesday in Newport Beach.

Segerstrom, who had turned 72 Monday, was a key advocate for performing arts and cultural pursuits, from ballet to modern sculpture to the children’s wing of the Bowers Museum.

She had become a force in a family empire that mirrored Orange County’s shift from scrubby bean fields to ritzy high-rises and mega-malls. And though she was known more as a cultural benefactor, she took a keen interest in one of the family’s more successful ventures, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, hand-picking some of the retail mecca’s best-known stores and restaurants and, for a time, directly supervising an Yves Saint Laurent boutique.

A family statement said her passing at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian “was sudden,” and the result of “complications of an extended illness,” which was not disclosed.

“She was a rare partner in life, full of love, joy and spirit,” Henry Segerstrom, her husband of nearly 20 years, said in Wednesday’s statement. “There is a special place of love for her in the hearts of her family and those who knew her, which will remain unfulfilled.”

O.C. Arts Needed Boost

For years, the family firm of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons operated a farming empire out of its Costa Mesa headquarters and earned something of an ignoble title: It was the nation’s largest independent producer of lima beans.

After World War II, the family shifted the focus of its business from farming to development, and, along with others such as the Irvine Co. and the Robert P. Warmington Co., helped piece together Orange County’s glass-and-concrete landscape.

The family founded and built South Coast Plaza Town Center, which became one of the nation’s most successful shopping centers. And at Santa Ana’s north end, the Segerstrom Center helped resuscitate a swath of North Main Street, which became a hub for major banking institutions.

But Orange County needed a boon in philanthropy to match its new office parks. Many of the region’s pioneers would argue that the Segerstrom family’s work in developing the area’s arts community was just as crucial in the metamorphosis of the county--changing it from an escape hatch from Los Angeles into a self-sufficient community.

Though Renee Segerstrom was deferential to her husband in business affairs, even in many social settings, she thrived on and was a driving force behind the family’s philanthropy.

The Segerstroms donated the land that became home to South Coast Repertory’s Fourth Step Theatre complex. In December, the family gave Orange County six acres of former farmland, valued at $16 million, for an expanded Costa Mesa cultural complex. She was involved in the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana and the St. Joseph Ballet.

Perhaps most importantly, the Segerstroms donated the land and at least $6 million for the construction of the $73.3-million Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa--at the time the largest private donation ever made to a performing arts center in the nation.

Renee Segerstrom was also an organizer and founder of the Angels of the Arts, the exclusive women’s support group of the Performing Arts Center. In the tradition of Los Angeles civic leader Dorothy Buffum Chandler, who once tore up a benefactor’s $20,000 check and demanded more money, Segerstrom was known for pressing patrons into writing checks for the family’s arts projects.

More than 7 million tickets have been sold at the Performing Arts Center’s 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall, a facility so booked with concerts, touring shows, dance and opera that organizers have launched a drive to open two more spaces: a 2,000-seat concert hall and a 500-seat multipurpose theater across the street.

“In a very great sense, the turning point for the arts in Orange County was the construction of the Performing Arts Center,” said Peter Keller, president of the Bowers Museum, where Segerstrom served on the board for seven years.

“She and Henry were pivotal in making the arts come of age here. It made it easier for the rest of us.”

In 1985, after the Segerstrom family commissioned New York sculptor Richard Lippold to create a 60-foot-tall sculpture outside the Performing Arts Center, Renee Segerstrom dubbed the work “Fire Bird” after composer Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite.”

The sculpture “will serve as a lasting tribute to Renee and her commitment to the arts, Orange County and the center,” said Jerry E. Mandel, the center’s president and chief operating officer.

“Renee’s love for the arts, her elegant dignity and her impeccable style were readily evident at every turn,” Mandel said. “The center was but one of the many cultural organizations that benefited from Renee’s involvement.”

Born in Lake Forest, Ill., Segerstrom was a resident of Orange County for 25 years, living in Newport Beach, near the bay where she loved to take dips.

She was known for her discerning taste in clothing, food and the arts. She often wore Saint Laurent gowns to society functions, with accents from her collection of diamonds and pearls.

Passionate, Elegant

She was an accomplished oil painter and developed a formidable collection of modern art. Her eye for art left a lasting impression on Orange County arts patrons: It resulted in the long-term loan of many pieces from the J. Paul Getty Museum to Segerstrom Hall.

“She was a genuinely lovely lady of the old school, a very articulate, passionate, elegant woman who really loved the arts,” said Mark Chapin Johnson, the chairman of the Performing Arts Center’s current capital campaign and the vice chairman of its board.

“She led by example. She was an idea partner with Henry and the Segerstrom family to put the arts in the visibility and forefront of the minds of Orange County. She didn’t just understand the importance of the arts to the community, she believed in it. She was there for performance after performance after performance.”

Segerstrom collected antique clocks and, an avid reader, assembled an extensive personal library, including scores of cookbooks-- she used to become a gourmet chef herself. She also spent hours in her garden, lovingly talking to her plants and boasting of her 27 lemon trees.

And she became a fixture of Southern California high society. She lunched with Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, serving them, at their request, an all-California meal of Monterey artichokes, petrale sole and Ventura lemon tart. She partied late into the evening with the Paris Opera Ballet and its director, Rudolf Nureyev. She mixed with architects such as I.M. Pei, Charles Lawrence and Cesar Pelli.

“She was a ray of sunshine,” said Maria del Carmen Calvo, a Capistrano Beach artist and Segerstrom’s friend for the last 14 years. “She was a beautiful human being. I’m not telling you that because she died. I’m telling you that because it is the truth.”

Segerstrom is survived by her husband, two children from a previous marriage, Michael and Mikette, and two grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at Waverly Church in Santa Ana. Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Monday, also at Waverly Church. She will be interred at Fairhaven Memorial Park, Santa Ana.