Martin County loses beloved philanthropist, supporter of arts after Jerry Rappaport's death

SEWALL'S POINT — Jerome “Jerry” Rappaport was remembered Tuesday as a beloved philanthropist, developer, political reformer and civic leader who supported his community with his passion, time and money.

Rappaport, a winter resident of Sewall’s Point, died Monday at age 94 at his home in Lincoln, Mass., following a recent diagnosis of cancer, his wife Phyllis Rappaport said.

Born in the Bronx, New York, Rappaport arrived in Massachusetts as a 16-year-old Harvard undergrad, and he went on to become a political activist, attorney, real estate developer and one of Boston’s most wealthy and influential philanthropists. He spent decades in the Boston area fighting for better government and better housing while encouraging progress in public policy, medicine, and the arts.

After 30 years at their waterfront home in Sewall's Point, the Rappaport name draws respect across Martin County. This is especially true from the Jewish community, which he helped grow when he donated most of the money to build Martin County's first Jewish temple, Temple Beit HaYam, in Stuart.

“He leaves behind a tremendous legacy. From his compassion to his kindness to his generosity, Jerry and Phyllis were on the forefront of creating Temple Beit Hayam since its inception,” said Rabbi Matthew Durbin.

The Rappaports, he said, recognized the need for a temple to exist in Stuart, “for a synagogue to be open for all people to be able to pray and to be able to come together as a community.

“They are giants in our community and would support the community wholeheartedly,” he said.

Rappaport Center

That commitment led to developing the Rappaport Center at the temple, which hosts an annual speaker series to foster intellectual stimulation and inspire the whole area, Durbin said.

The Rappaport Center’s speaker series, which last year partnered with TCPalm to produce a virtual forum on criminal justice reform, will continue, according to Durbin.

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Past speakers include CNN political analyst David Gergen, retired Washington Post editor Marty Baron and famed attorney Alan Dershowitz.

Phyllis Rappaport said the events often drew up to 700 people.

“A lot of the people who attended had never been inside a temple before. Jerry loves engagement between communities and thoughtful engagement on important topics of the day,” she said. “That’s just part of his lifeblood. It's something he helped create in Boston, and part of our life in Florida has been Jerry had a passion to make this happen there.”

The longtime art lover also served as a board member for the Treasure Coast's world-class Atlantic Classical Orchestra and has helped support a variety of organizations, including The Lyric Theatre, Florida Oceanographic Society and Elliott Museum.

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“Jerry was a man truly dedicated to understanding and improving all aspects of community life. He was involved with our culture, health, government education and religion,” said Dr. Richard Blagbrough, an Atlantic Classical Orchestra board member and friend. “Each was benefit of his brilliance and each relied on him for his energetic support ... the cultural growth of Martin County will remain but a small bit of Jerry's worldly fabric.”

The Orchestra was especially blessed, Blagbrought said, from the “endless” ways the Rappaports supported new composers and emerging artists.

Phyllis Rappaport said her husband for years helped young musicians through the Phyllis & Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation, which created a prize for up-and-coming composers to have their music performed by the classical orchestra for the first time.

“I think the Atlanta Classical Orchestra wouldn't be what it is today without Jerry,” she said. “He was extremely generous and engaged with the former director, Stuart Robertson.”

Stamp on Boston

At 24, Rappaport married his first wife, with whom he had six children during a 10-year marriage. A few years after their divorce, Rappaport married his second wife and had two more children. That marriage, too, lasted 10 years.

Phyllis Rappaport, who met her husband when she was 29 and he was 49, were married more than 40 years. She has two children from a previous marriage.

“I sought him out for career advice, a bold move by a young woman with an MBA, but few business contacts,” she said Tuesday. “I ended up with a beloved partner in a life so multi-dimensional, that it still takes my breath away to think about what we did, who we parented, where we traveled, what we created, in each wonderful person we embraced in our endeavors."

Over four decades, the Rappaports donated over $40 million to support public policy, medical research, and the arts. A majority of the donations have supported the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard Kennedy School, the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Boston College Law School and McLean Hospital.

The couple bought their Sewall's Point house in 1991 in what Phyllis Rappaport in a 2013 interview called “a gutsy but a good choice” because they knew nothing of the area.

Jerry Rappaport during the same interview said what won him over were the golf courses, weather and serenity. He was a frequent golfer at Willoughby Golf Club in Stuart.

In October, the couple came to Stuart for the winter but soon left again.

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“We were down there for a week and his doctor in Florida discovered his cancer and he sent him back to Boston, because it's such a science center that we live in and we're very tied to the hospitals (in Boston),” she said. “It was a very fast-moving cancer recently discovered so it’s a tribute to our doctors in Florida.”

She described her husband as brilliantly strategic, humble and smart.

“Probably no one of us came close to have in the magical combination of his photographic memory, strategic brainpower, flair for design and branding, nose for investments, incisive humor, interest in others, willingness to lead, a love for music and art and human warmth,” she said.

A memorial service will be held in Stuart at a future date to be determined, she said. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Temple Beit Hayam’s Rappaport Center.

Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers, and is writer and co-host of Uncertain Terms, a true crime podcast. Reach her at melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Sewall's Point philanthropist Jerry Rappaport died Monday at age 94