The prominent Cleveland businesswoman and philanthropist owned La Reverie, a custom oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, for many years before purchasing a penthouse at The Bristol in West Palm Beach.
Sydelle L. Miller, co-founder of the Ohio hair and beauty empire Matrix Essentials and longtime owner of ocean-to-lake real estate in Palm Beach, opened her home in Cleveland on February 25, 2024. He died in She was 86 years old. .
The noted philanthropist’s funeral was held in Cleveland on February 29th.
Her primary residence for the past few years has been a double penthouse that occupies an entire floor of the Bristol Condominium Tower in downtown West Palm Beach. In 2019, she sold her custom-built Palm Beach home known as La Reverie on South Ocean Boulevard.
Mrs. Miller founded Matrix Essentials, a brand of professional hair care products, in 1980, more than a dozen years before her late husband Arnold passed away. The company has become the nation’s largest manufacturer of professional hair and beauty products.
The Millers have been married for 30 years. After her husband’s death, Mrs. Miller became president and CEO of Matrix Essentials, more than doubling her sales, and in 1994 sold her business to Myers Squibb of Bristol. Today Matrix is a division of L’Oréal USA.
Mrs. Miller served as Chairman of the Board until her retirement in 1996. She later served in the same role at Aquage, a professional hair car product line founded by her older brother, Dennis Rubin.
“She was a wonderful woman and a visionary,” said Palm Beach architect Jeffrey Smith, who designed Mrs. Miller’s waterfront home and helped plan the Bristol penthouse.
He added, “I thought she was a very warm and caring person. She was like everyone’s grandmother.”
“Beauty doesn’t stop at the hairline”
Mrs. Miller was born August 10, 1937 in Cleveland, the daughter of Evelyn and Jack H. Rubin. She and her husband were married in 1958. They met when she was a customer at a hair salon in Cleveland.
She brought her creativity and business acumen to the salon, introducing accessories to the reception area and opening an apparel boutique above the store, according to a prepared obituary.
Other businesses followed, including Ardell, which the Millers founded in 1970. They invented what is billed as the world’s first ready-to-wear eyelashes, and went on to invent other products, saying they “single-handedly created the modern eyelash industry.” said the obituary. They then developed Henna Lucent, an innovative natural henna hair product, and eventually expanded into shampoos and conditioners.
The Matrix Essentials range was sold exclusively to salons and beauty agencies for their customers, but was later supplemented by products sold under the Vavoom and System Biolage brands. Headquartered in Solon, Ohio, Matrix products were distributed through a national network of cosmetologists and educators.
“Beauty goes beyond the hairline,” Mrs. Miller once said of her efforts to expand into skin care, cosmetics, body care and sun care products.
“She developed ‘Total Image Consulting,’ a philosophy that revolutionized the industry by creating the day spa concept and encouraging local salons to incorporate additional beauty services.” It is stated in the obituary.
In 2008, Mrs. Miller was honored as a “Woman of Distinction” at an annual ceremony hosted by Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach.
Mrs. Miller’s philanthropy was extensive.
Mrs. Miller’s philanthropy included support for health care, women’s leadership programs, the arts, and Jewish-centered charities in the United States and Israel.
In Cleveland in 2005, she and her children founded the Sydell & Arnold Miller Family Pavilion at the Cleveland Clinic, home of the Sydell & Arnold Miller Heart and Vascular Institute. She was a member of the medical center’s board of directors and served on the Florida Leadership Council. She also played an active role in efforts to bring a satellite of her Cleveland clinic to West Palm Beach.
In 2011, she was recognized for her work with the inaugural Sydelle Miller Award at the Cleveland Clinic’s Florida Bowl.
In Palm Beach County, his work included board positions with the American Cancer Society of Palm Beach, the Kravis Performing Arts Center, the Norton Museum of Art, and the Palm Beach Civic Association. She previously served as president of the Palm Beach Heart Ball, which supports the American Heart Association.
In Ohio, we supported Park Synagogue East Campus in Pepper Park and Gathering Place East Campus in Beachwood. She also founded the Sydell & Arnold Miller Entrepreneurial Research Institute at the Hawken School, a full-time school in Cleveland.
Among her professional honors, Mrs. Miller was the first non-cosmetologist to be inducted into the National Cosmetology Association Hall of Fame. working women magazine She once named her to a list of America’s Top 50 Women Executives. She also received the Beauty Changes Lives Foundation Legacy Award for her scholarship provision to cosmetology students.
An accomplished hostess, she frequently enjoys and hosts charity events at her art-filled French-style mansion on ocean and lakefront grounds at 1415 S. Ocean Blvd. in Palm Beach. did. The house was completed in her 2001, with a stone exterior and a series of Roman arches defining the ground floor windows and loggia openings.
She sold the mansion in December 2019 for a record price of $105 million, which was probably the record price for a Florida home at the time. In early 2021, she sold the lakefront section of the estate for a record $42 million. That’s about the same amount I paid for two apartments in Bristol combined.
Aside from her business success, Mrs. Miller was devoted to her family. Especially in her later years, she accepted “her patriarchal duties,” her obituary said.
In his later years, he also enjoyed the deep love and friendship of the late Philip Zekey, who passed away in 2013. She had a grandmotherly relationship with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to her obituary.
Mrs. Miller is survived by her children, Lauren Spielman (Steve), Stacey Halpern (Jeff), and her brother Dennis Rubin (Barbara). She is also survived by her grandchildren Alana and Max Spielman, Lindsey and Austin Halpern, Jarrod (Anna) and Evan Rubin, and her great-grandchildren Alejandra, Victoria, and Valentina.
Services were held at Park Synagogue East in Cleveland, with burial at Mount Olive Cemetery in Solon. Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookcutz Memorial Chapel was in charge of arrangements.
Those wishing to make a donation in Mrs. Miller’s memory may do so in lieu of flowers to Cleveland Clinic Heart, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, or Park Synagogue’s Arnold and Sydell Miller Family Campus.
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Darrell Hofheinz is a Florida journalist for the USA TODAY Network who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes information regarding real estate news on the island. Email [email protected]call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz.