Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr: Philanthropist and former owner of CBS12 dies at 91

Alexander Wallace Dreyfoos Jr., 91, died early Sunday (May 28, 2023), leaving behind a cultural legacy that includes a performance hall named after him at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach.

Dreyfoos Jr, born on March 22, 1932, co-founded Photo Electronics Corporation (PEC) in 1963 with George W. Mergens to address issues with color print reproduction. They created the ground-breaking Video Color Negative Analyzer (VCNA) in Dreyfoos’ basement in Port Chester, New York, and subsequently established a factory in a former church in Connecticut. Eastman Kodak Corporation offered the VCNA globally.

Dreyfoos later invented the innovative LaserColor Printer and assisted his son, Robert Dreyfoos, in developing a digital version of the VCNA for PEC called the Professional Video Analyzing Computer (PVAC).

Dreyfoos oversaw efforts that culminated in the 1992 opening of the fully funded Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Palm Beach County’s cultural showpiece, after launching what became the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in 1978.

He served as its board chair until 2007, and he was its single highest donor, donating $7,000,000.

As of June 30, 2016, the Kravis Center ranked 11th in the world, sixth in the United States, and first in Florida in terms of theatre ticket sales.

Dreyfoos, a philanthropist, made the largest donation to a public school in Florida history when he presented $1,000,000 to Palm Beach County School of the Arts in 1997, renaming it Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts.

Other donations include;

Dreyfoos made a $1 million donation to Scripps Florida on the John D. MacArthur Campus of Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Florida, in 2004.

Dreyfoos’ most significant gift was $15 million to MIT for the Stata Center, which consists of two buildings named after Dreyfoos and Bill Gates. This donation was dedicated to Dreyfoos’ late mentor and MIT physics professor, Arthur C. Hardy. Since 1995, Dreyfoos has endowed the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professorship at MIT’s Media Lab.

Mr. Dreyfoos is survived by his wife, Renate, daughter Catherine Dreyfoos Carter and son Robert Dreyfoos (Julie); grandchildren Michael Aron Carter (Morgan), Michelle Carter Fenimore (Brian), Travis Dreyfoos (Natalie) and Aron Dreyfoos (Lauren); and great-grandchildren Allison Fenimore, Grayson Carter and Landon Carter.