Henry Segerstrom

Henry Thomas Segerstrom (April 5, 1923 – February 20, 2015) 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.

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.

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.

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 U.S. Army Artillery School Hall of Fame, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

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 (the 405)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.