Henry Segerstrom leaves lasting influence

Like many pioneers in California, Henry Segerstrom was a farmer. Before Costa Mesa’s north end transformed into a hub of business and culture, it played host to lima bean fields — some of which still exist in the spaces outside luxury hotels and theaters.

Segerstrom, though, was a pioneer of a special kind. Rather than travel miles in search of fertile soil, he found potential in the family farmland beneath his feet. And that potential, over a half-century, would fulfill its promise time and again.

South Coast Plaza, which set a new precedent for shopping destinations, opened in 1967 under the leadership of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons. The Orange County Performing Arts Center, which raised its curtain in 1986, later renamed itself the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Segerstrom even gave a permanent home to South Coast Repertory, which moved through multiple locations before settling on Town Center Drive in 1978.

In short, it’s hard to drive more than a block or two around the Costa Mesa-Santa Ana border without seeing Segerstrom’s influence — or his name. (Segerstrom Avenue and Segerstrom High School also reside nearby.) So when the developer died in February at the age of 91, the words of Segerstrom Center President Terry Dwyer — “We’re all overwhelmed with an avalanche of emotions and memories” — likely spoke for many residents in Orange County and beyond.

Born in 1923 to a family of Swedish immigrant farmers, Segerstrom attended Santa Ana High School before serving in World War II, where he earned a Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he shifted the focus of his family company from agriculture to real estate — although, even in later years, he was known to give bags of lima beans as personal gifts.

By the time of his death, his mark on Orange County extended not only to major venues but also to his renowned collection of public art, which grew to include Isamu Noguchi’s “California Scenario” sculpture garden and Richard Serra’s 65-foot-high “Connector” sculpture outside the Segerstrom Center.

This spring, South Coast Plaza honored its founder with an exhibit of his own, featuring photos and artifacts from throughout Segerstrom’s life. The show’s title was “Courage of Imagination” — fitting for a man who made ambition its own daring art.