Brimming with support

This summer, with the Anaheim Ducks atop the world of hockey, the Stanley Cup made its rounds of Newport-Mesa. The trophy, which traditionally gets passed to each player on the championship team, logged appearances at Muldoon’s, Fashion Island and the Orange County Performing Artscenter.

That last location was an especially fitting one.

Newport Beach businessman Henry Samueli and his wife, Susan, who recently had a theater named after them at the Artscenter, are the owners of the Ducks and helped guide them to their first title.

 It was another banner year for one of Newport-Mesa’s premiere power couples. In 2005, the Samuelis purchased the Ducks from the Walt Disney Co. In 2006, the Artscenter opened the 500-seat Samueli Theater as part of a massive renovation, honoring the Samuelis for their longtime support of the arts.

The Samuelis’ names may not have been etched on the Stanley Cup, but it was the latest in their long line of recent trophies.

Like the bearers of that other S name that dominates Newport-Mesa — Segerstrom — the Samuelis have made their mark in a number of fields. Henry Samueli, who launched the computer networking company Broadcom Corporation in 1991, also became the namesake of UC Irvine’s engineering school after donating $20 million to it.

Susan Samueli founded the nonprofit 44 Women for Children, an auxiliary of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, in 1999 to support former foster children who had been emancipated. In September, she won the Woman of the Year award from the nonprofit Women Investing in Security and Education.

The couple’s most famous philanthropic endeavor, however, is the Samueli Foundation, which launched in 1999 and provides grant money in five major areas: education, health, social services, the arts and spirituality and interfaith organizations. Much of the foundation’s grant recipients are local — including UCI, the Orange County Department of Education and the Boys & Girls Club of Orange County.

 “For us,” the couple wrote in a letter on their website, “giving back was never a question.”

HENRY AND SUSAN SAMUELI

Age: 53/57

Occupation: Anaheim Ducks owners, philanthropists

Residence: Newport Beach