Florida Tech Mourns Passing of Arts Patron Dee Negroni-Hendrick
2011 Gift Allowed University to Acquire What is Now Foosaner Art Museum
MELBOURNE, FLA. — Dione Negroni-Hendrick, a compassionate and active patron of the arts at Florida Institute of Technology and across the Space Coast and a leading advocate for the importance of art appreciation, will be honored at a memorial service at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, at Rockledge Presbyterian Church, 921 Rockledge Drive.
Mrs. Negroni-Hendrick, known as Dee, passed away Jan. 5.
As director of the Foosaner Foundation, established by her father Sam, a tax and estate planning attorney and former member of the Florida Tech Board of Trustees, and inspired by her mother, Renee, an artist and teacher, Mrs. Negroni-Hendrick supported a variety of artistic endeavors, from the Brevard Symphony Orchestra and Community Band of Brevard to the Cocoa Village Playhouse and Henegar Center for the Arts to the Negroni-Hendrick Mobile Library.
One of the foundation’s signature gifts was to Florida Tech.
In 2011, after the former Brevard Art Museum Board of Directors approached the university about a potential takeover of the museum, Mrs. Negroni-Hendrick, acting on behalf of the Foosaner Foundation, made a $1 million gift to Florida Tech to acquire and make improvements to what would become the Foosaner Art Museum.
“Appreciating the arts is key to becoming a successful global citizen, and the generosity of Dee Negroni-Hendrick and the Foosaner Foundation has ensured that is part of a Florida Tech education,” said Florida Tech President T. Dwayne McCay. “Dee’s belief in the power and importance of books, music and fine art has made Florida Tech and Brevard County better, richer places, and we will miss her dearly.”
In addition to the museum, the Foosaner Foundation donated funding for the footbridge between the Denius Student Center and the north campus housing area. It was dedicated to her father with a plaque that reads, “Education is your bridge to the future.”
And the Foundation provided a gift to build a gazebo in an area of the Florida Tech Botanical Garden now called the Negroni-Hendrick Pavilion.
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