This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Henry T. Segerstrom, the courtly real estate developer and arts philanthropist who was instrumental in transforming Orange County from a provincial bedroom community into a nexus of culture and commerce, has died. He was 91.

Segerstrom died Friday at his home in Newport Beach after a brief illness, according to Debra Gunn Downing, a spokeswoman for South Coast Plaza.

Born into a family of Swedish immigrant farmers, Segerstrom replaced lima bean fields in Costa Mesa with the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, South Coast Repertory, high-rise office towers and South Coast Plaza, one of the world’s largest shopping centers.

A hands-on developer, Segerstrom personally recruited Nordstrom to open its first Southern California store in Orange County at South Coast Plaza. Wanting to add more art to a business complex, he charmed a reluctant Isamu Noguchi, a world-renowned Japanese artist, to create a 1.5-acre sculpture garden by promising him creative freedom.

Click here to read the full story on LATimes.com.