TCPalm: Jack Nicklaus hosts Shell Party celebrating new EcoCenter at Florida Oceanographic Society

Florida Oceanographic Society Executive Director Mark Perry (right), describes what's to come inside the new 26,000-square-foot EcoCenter to FOS honorary trustee and decorated golfer Jack Nicklaus (center) and his wife, Barbara Nicklaus, on Monday, Feb. 17, 2020, at the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center on Hutchinson Island in Stuart. Tours of the new building were part of what about 150 guests experienced during the Shell Party, a celebration of progress of a $7.4 million expansion project at Florida Oceanographic's 57-acre campus, hosted by the Nicklaus'. "He's been an avid fisherman for many years so he understands conservation and why it's important," Perry said of Nicklaus, who has been an honorary trustee at the organization since 1998. "He thought it would be great to bring his (22) grandkids here."