In Friday’s (12/21) Tampa Bay Times (Florida), Andrew Meacham writes, “Aside from the top hat he sometimes wore, jeweled cuff links he had made and a Corum watch with a face to match his Excalibur automobile, Dick Minck set himself apart with a piece of formal wear none could imitate—hand-painted tuxedo shirts reminiscent of Salvador Dali. That kind of panache made him hard to miss at galas for the arts. But the area’s museums and orchestras knew Mr. Minck provided a lot more than a reliable dose of pizazz. Together with his wife, the late Helen James Minck, he was a big reason those institutions have stayed afloat. Mr. Minck was a 57-year-old bachelor in the mid-1980s when he married Helen, the widow of Raymond James Financial founder Robert James, who died in 1983. Theirs was a true partnership, friends and relatives say, especially in the Mincks’ mutual commitment to the arts. Mr. Minck died Dec. 12, nearly a year after the death of his wife. He was 84. … ‘Dick and Helen helped us acquire major works of art,’ said spokesman David Connelly of the Museum of Fine Arts. … The couple also contributed heavily to the Dali Museum and had endowed three chairs in the Florida Orchestra.”
Posted December 21, 2012
