Alexander W. Dreyfoos Way: West Palm street now bears name of key figure in county’s cultural history

After decades of involvement and helping to shape Palm Beach County, Alexander W. Dreyfoos’ name is now a permanent part of West Palm Beach’s infrastructure.

The former Iris Way — the road that runs east to west between the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, two institutions in which Dreyfoos played a key role — is now officially Alexander W. Dreyfoos Way.

The West Palm Beach City Commission approved the change in a pair of votes Jan. 23 and Feb. 6, with the January meeting packed with supporters who told commissioners the move was a long overdue honor to the 91-year-old Dreyfoos, an inventor, entrepreneur, supporter and lover of the arts and longtime resident of downtown West Palm Beach.

“Thanks to a humble, albeit brilliant, visionary named Alexander Dreyfoos, we are a town of rare distinction,” said dancer and photographer Steve Caras, who first proposed the idea to name a street after Dreyfoos, a longtime close friend.

“Who, amongst any one of us, doesn't take enormous pride in seeing how, over time, millions have benefited from The Kravis Center, The Dreyfoos School of the Arts, The Cultural Council? The least we could have done was name a street after this great man,” Caras said.

Friends and supporters of Dreyfoos as well as his wife, Renate, celebrated the street renaming April 6 with an unveiling of the new signs, replacing Iris Way with Alexander W. Dreyfoos Way. Dreyfoos was unable to attend.

Read more: Alex Dreyfoos: How a creative mind sparked a life of accomplishment

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The effort to rename the street truly took a village, said Chris Synder, CEO for the Dreyfoos School of the Arts Foundation. “I probably beg to argue that he’s driven hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to our community with this infusion of science and the arts and the business community,” Snyder said.

Caras first brought the idea to rename the street to Snyder, who then went to West Palm Beach officials to see what would need to be done. An ad hoc team of city staff and community members, including local attorney and historian Harvey Oyer III and Assistant City Administrator Armando Fana, were able to move the process through the necessary steps, Snyder said.

“In my estimation, Alexander Dreyfoos is one of the most consequential people in the history of Palm Beach County, and he is either solely or partially responsible for a number of very important institutions in our community,” Oyer said. “We probably should have named something after him a long time ago.”

All who commented for this article said the street that was chosen could not be more fitting, as it connects two of the major cultural contributions Dreyfoos made to the community.

“It’s certainly not lost on us that the street happens to be the intersection between the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, which to me represents the future of Alex’s legacy, and the Kravis Center, which Alex wanted to be a stage where we could bring culture and creativity to the community,” Kravis Center CEO Diane Quinn said.

“We have sort of the future and the present all at that intersection, which is now Alexander W. Dreyfoos Way.”

Dreyfoos is credited with helping to turn West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County into the cultural hubs they are today. His efforts led to the opening of the Kravis Center in 1992, and he also was a founding member of the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County and the Economic Council of Palm Beach County.

Known for his intelligence and humility, Dreyfoos graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then received his master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School after a tour with the Air Force Reserve in Germany. He is chairman and CEO of private capital management firm The Dreyfoos Group.

An early love of engineering and photography led him to form the Photo Electronics Corp. in 1963. He moved his company in the 1960s from New York to West Palm Beach, where he saw great opportunity to grow the business community by investing in and growing the cultural community.

“Alex Dreyfoos is truly a builder,” former Kravis Center CEO Judy Mitchell said. “He assembled the makings of a truly great performing arts center and cultural hub for this community and region.”

Oyer said he was honored to play a role in the renaming effort.

“We were blessed that he came to our community and devoted so much of his time and enormous brain power and wealth to improving our community, for generations of folks who will never know who he was, but will benefit for years,” Oyer said.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: West Palm Beach street now bears the name of key figure in county’s cultural history