Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr.
This biographical article is written encyclopedic . (December 2022) |
Alexander Wallace Dreyfoos Jr. (March 22, 1932 – May 28, 2023)[1] was an American businessman and philanthropist based in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Saranac Lake, New York.
Biography
Alexander Dreyfoos was the only son of cellist Martha Bullard Whittemore Dreyfoos (1898–1977) and photographer-inventor Alexander W. Dreyfoos Sr. (1876–1951) of Apeda Studios.[2] He was of paternal Swiss-Jewish descent.[3] He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1954 with a Bachelor of Science focusing on electronics, optics, and physics, assisted by MIT financing after the death of his father.[4] Having also completed ROTC, Dreyfoos then served in the U.S. Air Force in Sembach, Germany, 1954–1956, commanding a 40-man photo lab critical to reconnaissance missions at age 22.[5] Returning home, under the GI Bill he earned an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1958.[4] Dreyfoos earned his pilot's license in 1960, and multiple ratings over time including airline transport pilot (ATP). He had owned six airplanes, including two Citation jets, and two turbine helicopters, all of which he flew single-pilot.[3]
Dreyfoos founded Photo Electronics Corporation (PEC) in 1963, with George W. Mergens, to address problems in color print reproduction. They developed their groundbreaking Video Color Negative Analyzer (VCNA) in Dreyfoos’
Dreyfoos held ten U.S. and many foreign patents covering his inventions. Dreyfoos owned television station WPEC TV-12, the CBS affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, from 1973 to 1996. Beginning in 1977, under his direction, his staff developed the world-class Sailfish Marina Resort in Palm Beach Shores, Florida, which he sold in 2004.[10] It was the success of PEC that enabled these purchases, and their subsequent sales that enabled Dreyfoos to practice philanthropy, for which he formed The Dreyfoos Group in 1996.
After founding in 1978 what became the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, Dreyfoos led efforts that culminated in the 1992 opening of the fully funded
To address his wife Renate's motion sickness, Dreyfoos helped to design their unique SWATH yacht Silver Cloud built by Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder, Germany. When launched in 2008, Silver Cloud was the first pleasure yacht with the SWATH design, first used for commercial vessels.[14] In 2015 Silver Cloud completed the circumnavigation of the world after Dreyfoos went to extreme measures to travel safely through terrorist-controlled waters.[15][16] For part of the achievement, Dreyfoos received the World SuperYacht 2010 Voyager's Award.[22]
Dreyfoos had been a photographer since childhood and was known for his travel and underwater photos. In 2015 he compiled 587 of his favorites in the book A Photographic Odyssey: Around the World with Alexander W. Dreyfoos (ed. Lise M. Steinhauer), with proceeds supporting the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County (
Dreyfoos died on May 28, 2023, at the age of 91.[1]
Philanthropy
Dreyfoos made the largest donation in Florida history to a public school when he gave $1,000,000 in 1997 to
With his financial commitment at its launch in 1998, Dreyfoos became the first founding member of the marine conservation organization International SeaKeepers Society.[19]
In 2004, Dreyfoos donated $1,000,000 to kick off support of Scripps Florida on the John D. MacArthur Campus of
Dreyfoos’ largest gift has been $15,000,000 to MIT for the
One of Dreyfoos' donations to the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts was his funding of the George W. Mergens Memorial Organ, dedicated in 2016, a custom-made electronic virtual pipe organ with a
References
- ^ a b Palm Beach County cultural icon Alexander Dreyfoos dies at 91
- ^ "Deaths". The New York Times. 27 March 1977. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ a b Steinhauer, Lise M. and David Randal Allen, Alexander W. Dreyfoos: Passion & Purpose, West Palm Beach, FL: The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. (2016)
- ^ a b "Alex Dreyfoos commits $15 million for building in new MIT complex". News.mit.edu. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "The SAR Magazine - MAY 2015". sar.epubxp.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ “Alex W. Dreyfoos Jr., Electronics Engineer: Under the Banyan Tree.” Forbes. May 15, 1978.
- ^ "Academy Awards Database - AMPAS". Archived from the original on 2016-10-24. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
- ^ "Information Age: People, Information and Technology". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "CAMERA - the New York Times". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-07-27. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
- ^ “Sailfish Marina and Resort – History.” Sailfish Marina and Resort. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
- ^ "Founder, Alexander W. Dreyfoos - Cultural Council of Palm Beach County". Palmbeachculture.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "Kravis Center for the Performing Arts | Official Website - History of the Kravis Center". Archived from the original on 2016-11-07. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
- ^ "2016 Mid-Year Worldwide Ticket Sales - Top 100 Theatre Venues" (PDF). Pollstarpro.com. June 30, 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
- ^ "Silver Cloud Odyssey Presentation". Archived from the original on 2016-07-24. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
- ^ International, Camper & Nicholsons. "The adventurous superyacht Silver Cloud completes two year circumnavigation - Camper & Nicholsons". Camperandnicholsons.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ Alexander W. Dreyfoos: Passion & Purpose," Steinhauer, Lise M. and David Randal Allen, West Palm Beach, FL: The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. (2016)
- ^ "Best High Schools Palm Beach County". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ "Dreyfoos School of the Arts Foundation". soafi.org. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "The International Seakeepers Society" (PDF). Seakeepers.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 May 2005. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ tedsall. "Donor Stories". Scripps.edu. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "Renate and Alex Dreyfoos". Maxplanckflorida.org. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "New building embodies vision -- and quirkiness". News.mit.edu. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "MIT Media Lab auditorium named to honor Alexander W. Dreyfoos '54 - MIT News Office". Archived from the original on 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
- ^ "Home - The MIT Corporation". web.mit.edu. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "World Premiere of the Kravis Center's Marshall & Ogletree Opus 11 Digital Organ - Notables". notables.palmbeachpost.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.