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Allen Leepa, artist and benefactor, dead at 90

Tribune file photo (1999)

Allen Leepa watches a work in progress as 11-year-old Jammel Davis, a student at Tarpon Springs Middle School, paints during groundbreaking ceremonies for the Leepa-Rattner Art Museum.

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TBO.com

Published: June 29, 2009

Allen Leepa, an abstract expressionist artist, author and college professor, died Friday. He was 90.

Leepa, who called Tarpon Springs his home after retiring as a Michigan State University art professor, was a champion for the arts. In 1997, he and his wife, Isabelle, donated an expansive art collection to St. Petersburg College.

The collection, valued at more than $20 million, includes thousands of Leepa's works, along with those of his mother, Esther Gentle Rattner, and stepfather, Abraham Rattner, as well as works by Picasso, Chagall and others, college administrators say.

The Leepas also donated $2.5 million to the college for the 58,000-square-foot Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art complex, which opened in 2002 on the Tarpon Springs campus.

Isabelle Leepa died in 2006 at age 78.

In a statement today, college President Carl M. Kuttler Jr. said the "gift of such magnificent works by Allen and Isabelle Leepa has become one of St. Petersburg College's most valuable assets. It also has added greatly to the cultural value of West Central Florida."

Leepa was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and spent his early years in California before returning to New York for high school.

He trained at The Art Students League in New York City and the New Bauhaus school of design in Chicago, and received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Columbia University.

Leepa exhibited his works around the United States and abroad. He published two books, including "Rattner," a biography of his stepfather.

The museum will present the exhibition "Allen Leepa: In Memoriam," opening Aug. 2 with a tribute to Leepa's life at 3 p.m. The exhibition runs through Aug. 30.

Funeral services are pending. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the Allen Leepa Memorial Fund at the museum.

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