Alan Korest, Naples philanthropist, dies from COVID-19 after a lifetime of giving

Naples has lost an icon who never tired giving of his mind, wisdom and heart to make the community a better place for all who call it home.

Alan Korest, 92, a beloved humanitarian whose public service spanned decades, died June 4 surrounded by his family in Naples.

“Alan was every minute of every day thinking about what is in the best interest of the community,” Alan Horton, 79, a longtime friend and former editor of the Naples Daily News from 1987 to 1991, said. “He had a brilliant mind.”

Korest's generosity with his time, talent and philanthropic gifts to numerous organizations, from Moorings Park to Florida Gulf Coast University, were phenomenal, said Dudley Goodlette, a Naples attorney and former state representative from 1998 to 2006.

“He was one of my heroes,” Goodlette, 74, said. “He was always wanting to help any cause or person that he could.”

From 2011: Alan Korest named 2011 Naples Daily News Outstanding Citizen

In case you missed it: Wounded Warriors in Collier opens third home to provide housing for homeless veterans

Despite being vaccinated and double-boosted against COVID-19, Korest contracted the virus in early May.

He appeared to be on the mend after taking Paxlovid, a medication that became available a few months earlier. He tested negative for the virus but shortly thereafter had a positive test, said his wife, Dolly Bodick, 71.

They returned to Naples from their summer home in New Hampshire. He later needed to be hospitalized at NCH Downtown Baker Hospital. He was fully himself right up to the end.

“He was determined that he would only live a full and robust life, and made sure that his doctor and I were aware of that,” Bodick said.  Her husband advised when it was time to call for hospice care.

“Then, on Saturday morning, as soon as the whole family was again assembled, he took his last breath,” she said. “His courage and dignity shone through to the end, and even beyond.”

His life before Naples

Korest was born Oct. 18, 1929 in Rockford, Illinois, on the threshold of the Great Depression. His family relocated to Chicago in 1931 and Detroit in 1935. He was an only child.

He graduated from Cooley High School in Detroit in 1947 and received his bachelor’s degree in business in 1951 from Northwestern University. He served in the Korean War as a Naval Intelligence officer until he was honorably discharged in 1955.

He married his first wife, Patricia Sullivan, in 1952. They had four children before they divorced. He married his second wife, Marilyn Bower Patton in 1970. She died in 2010.

Korest launched an industrial equipment sales business in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1958, which he ran for 25 years until 1983. He sold the company to his employees.

He and his wife moved to Naples that same year and Korest became active in Naples politics. He served on the city’s Planning Advisory Board and the Naples City Council, including as vice mayor under then Mayor Ned Putzell.

Korest helped steer Moorings Park in the 1990s, the nonprofit continuing care retirement community, into the community it is today, said Dan Lavender, chief executive officer of Moorings Park.

“Alan was truly a great man,” Lavender said. “He was a model of kindness (who) cared about others and was always interested in their challenges and successes.”

Korest and his late wife developed the plans for the Bower Chapel at Moorings Park, a project funded by Marilyn Korest’s father, Edwin Bower, which included the Fenner Douglass organ that is spectacular, Horton said.

In addition to the Bower Chapel, Korest’s other legacies at Moorings Park are The Korest Plaza, The Korest Green Room, and the Memorial Plaza in partnership with the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Lavender said.

When he left Naples in early May for the summer and to travel, there was always the belief he would return in the fall and the community would continue to benefit from his insight, Lavender said.

“Now we are all striving to pay tribute to this truly kind and impactful man’s memory by serving others,” Lavender said.

The accolades

Korest and his late wife donated $2.5 million in 2006 to establish the Bower School of Music at Florida Gulf Coast University, which was named after her father.

“FGCU would not have a school of music if it weren’t for the Korests,” Horton said.

In 2011 when he was chosen to receive the Naples Daily News Outstanding Citizen Award, which is a closely guarded secret right up to the evening of the ceremony, Korest nearly didn’t attend, Horton said.

Korest had just returned from Libya where he witnessed the start of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. Korest managed to get on the last plane out of Tripoli with the help of a bodyguard. He complained of jet lag and didn't plan to attend the ceremony.

“We had to trick him into going,” Horton said.

Providing children with a quality education was another of his passions. Korest was presented the Heart of the Apple Award in 2013-14 by the Champions for Learning, the education foundation in Collier County.

In an interview with the Naples Daily News before the award ceremony, Korest said: “Education is probably the only thing in human life that we all agree is necessary. Society and civilization would be a wasteland without education.”

In 2016, he was named Hodges University’s Humanitarian of the Year.

If Korest pledged to help with a cause, and he did that innumerable times, Goodlette said he always came through.

“His word was his bond,” Goodlette said. “If he said he would do something, you could put it in the bank.”

Traveling the world

In recent years, Korest and Bodick traveled aboard the luxurious ship, The World, where they owned one of 160 apartments.

The ship was continuously at sea and the apartment owners could get off and on anywhere they wanted, she said.

It was the most enriching, informative and invaluable way to travel to any corner of the world, she said.

Her husband was one of the most “curious creatures” and the ship’s environment with the other owners and where they traveled could not have been a better environment for him, she said.

“This was the ultimate adventure,” she said.

She and Korest had known each other for years in Naples, where their paths had crossed often in his civic involvements and through her Naples-based firm, dbr marketing. She retired in 2013-2014. They married in 2017.

“It was a wonderful partnership,” she said. “It was just the most natural union you could imagine.”

The list is long of Korest’s civic involvements, and the outpouring since his death is extensive, and not surprising since he gave so much of himself, she said.

“He was one of a kind, no question about that,” she said. “He took control of his life and did what he set out to do.”

A celebration of Korest’s life will be held in the Bower Chapel at a future date, according to his obituary. Donations can be made to the Florida Gulf Coast University Bower School of Music and/or its Marilyn B. Korest Music Therapy Scholarship Fund via the Florida Gulf Coast University Foundation. The address is 10501 FGCU Blvd. S., Fort Myers, FL 33965. Or donate to the Moorings Park Foundation at 120 Moorings Park Drive, Naples, FL 34105.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples philanthropist, 92, dies of COVID-19 after lifetime of achievements