Perhaps the most remarkable member of this third generation is his daughter Julia, who dropped out of Brown University four years ago with a classmate to found a band named Pussy Galore. In July 1993, he was elected President and CEO of the Foundation and in the last six months became Chairman Emeritus. In 1962, when it was the product of Morris Cafritz's vision, the largest grants went to the United Jewish Appeal and the Community Chest Federation. The complaint further asserts that "when Decedent allegedly executed the purported Will and Codicil that have been offered for probate herein, Decedent lacked a sound and disposing mind and was not capable of executing a valid deed or contract. The Cafritz Foundation was one of the biggest in the D.C. area, with over $400 million in assets and around $65 million in annual revenue and expenses, according to The Washington Business Journal. Baron and Baroness Constantine Stackelberg . ", Her drinking got out of control, he agrees, shortly after Morris Cafritz's sudden death of a heart attack in 1964. Of the $54 million the foundation has given away since 1970, $32 million has gone to the arts and humanities, almost $9 million to community services, $8 million to education and almost $5 million to health. Morris Cafritz incorporated the foundation in 1948 to give money to Washington-area charities, and when he died 16 years later, he left it half his estate, mostly as stock in dozens of closely held corporations; as the new majority owner of most of these companies, and with Gwendolyn owning most of the rest, the foundation became in essence the owner of the Cafritz Co., its subsidiaries and its assets. Morris Cafritz is remembered more for the quantity than for the aesthetic quality of his works. . Its annual reports list a fairly traditional, staid set of beneficiaries, and its grants are studied by an advisory board heavily weighted toward the kind of high-profile, high-society arts philanthropy that Gwendolyn favored: Among the members are National Gallery of Art Director J. Carter Brown, retired Smithsonian secretary S. Dillon Ripley and retired librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin, as well Carolyn Deaver, wife of former White House deputy chief of staff Michael K. Deaver, and a social friend of Gwendolyn's, Mrs. Tazewell Shepard. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. "Conrad was persistent as hell in getting that project," says one person familiar with Conrad's business. Another asks the bank to produce "all documents relating to purchase or provision of wine, champagne, or liquor on behalf of or for Gwendolyn Cafritz or for delivery to or consumption at 2301 Foxhall Road. The foundation, among Greater Washingtons largest with more than $400 million in assets and some $65 million in annual revenue and expenses, according to its most recent Form 990, is expected to issue a formal statement in the coming days. Md.-based government contractor relocates headquarters to Fairfax Co. Montgomery County, MD Files Lawsuit Against McKinsey and Company, Inc. for Companys Role in Creating Opioid Epidemic, GSA Seeks Commercial Procurement Data Solution. To slip out of the speedy traffic on Foxhall Road into the half-circle driveway was to slip back in time. Giving to charity is a meaningful way to honor someone who has died. Your email address will not be published. It asks the court to rule that under Morris's will, which gave Gwendolyn the right to leave the trust to "such person or persons" as she wished, the foundation -- technically a corporation -- could not qualify to receive the trust. ", She gave only two parties in the last 15 years of her life -- one in 1978, her first in five years, and the final party in 1986. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Calvin Cafritz to show support. "He took me into the kitchen and showed me how the cook would leave coffee for him in the morning," remembers the friend. All of their lives, the Cafritz boys have been aware of their status as the sons of Morris and Gwendolyn. January 16, 2023, 1:16 AM D.C. developer, businessman and philanthropist Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate icon Morris Cafritz and his wife Gwendolyn, died Thursday at Sibley Memorial Hospital. Here, still, was the art moderne house, nearly as startling in 1986 as it had been when Morris Cafritz built it for his young family almost 50 years earlier. The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation is already, with its more than $220 million in assets, the largest source of private funds earmarked for the District of Columbia. There are no events at this time. She retained the right to will awaythe remaining three-quarters, or $63 million, which sheleft to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Rachel M. Ratowsky Obituary He also is a director. Calvin Cafritz, a native and longtime resident of Washington, DC, was born March 29, 1931, as the eldest son of Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz. It is not clear how old he was when he fell for a 19-year-old Hungarian-American beauty named Gwendolyn Detre de Surany; perhaps because she was so much younger than he, Cafritz appears to have habitually understated his age by six or eight years. He and his wife, Jane, and the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation have made major contributions to the city of Washington, DC and the region. . To offer your sympathy during this difficult time, you can now have memorial trees planted in a National Forest in memory of your loved one. Throughout the '40s and '50s it was her custom to give a large cocktail reception each spring, and to mark the opening of every fall season with a party honoring the start of the Supreme Court term. They're not a map to follow, but simply a description of what people commonly feel. Today, Calvin is foundation chairman. . Two and a half years later Gwendolyn Cafritz was dead of cancer, at 78, and the following summer -- three years after that final party -- her two younger sons filed suit in D.C. Superior Court to have her will overturned and her estate, worth at least $140 million, divided among her children. Their complaint challenges her wish to leave all she owned, except for minor bequests, to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, a charitable trust her husband had established 40 years before. He often conveyed his conviction that believing in a cause obligated one to support it financially. It charges that Rogers and Atlas "exerted undue influence" on her decision to leave all her money to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, and that Gwendolyn herself "lacked testamentary capacity," meaning that she was incapable of writing her will. But like all wills, the one now known in probate court as 3035-88 offers more than one legacy, and thus more than one motive. He too has denied the sons' allegations in his formal answer to their complaint. For one thing, he has a dark, avowedly cynical sense of humor. In the past two decades Washington has been one of the hottest real estate markets in the country, building new fortunes, multiplying old ones, constantly attracting new players from other cities. Authorize the publication of the original written obituary with the accompanying photo. What do the younger sons of the celebrated Washington hostess hope to gain by waging legal war over their mother's will? Rogers, an attorney general under President Eisenhower and secretary of state under Richard Nixon, declined to be interviewed for this story; he has denied the allegations in papers filed in court. He has assembled a group of about 14 local hotels, including the Georgetown Inn and One Washington Circle. Calvin Cafritz Obituary The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation has Died January 17, 2023 Calvin Cafritz Death, Obituary - Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz, died Thursday at Sibley Memorial Hospital. "He just wanted to build, build, build, build!" And even then, there was always fussing. All rights reserved. Rogers had served as her personal attorney since her husband, Washington real estate magnate Morris Cafritz, died in 1964. There were of course the grand exceptions like the Warburgs, and Walter Lippmann, and Arthur Krock . Calvins father Morris built the now-demolished Ambassador Hotel at 14th and K Streets NW, homes next to the National Arboretum, the Greenwich Forest neighborhood in Bethesda and several office buildings downtown. There was no one she would not invite to dinner, sometimes calling the offices of Cabinet secretaries to ask for any day in the next year when the secretary would be free. His most notable contribution was in the streamlined art deco apartment houses designed, either singly or together, by architects Alvin L. Aubinoe and Harry L. Edwards, including the Majestic, the Hightowers, the Empire and the since-demolished Gwenwood on 19th Street NW. Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate developer Morris Cafritz, died last week at the age of 91. Devoted father to Laurence (Sherri) Cafritz and Jodi (Mark Bronsky) Cafr Throughout his career he was recognized not only for his natural intuitive insight but also for his in-depth study and acute analysis of every possibility for investment in real estate. By the time of her death, however, Calvin was still the son closest to his mother. Says a friend, "He thinks they're a lot of fuddy-duddies living in the 17th century." Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Calvin Cafritz to show support. They're more like the French salons.". If you experience a barrier that affects your ability to access content on this page, let us know via the. Cafritz Calvin Cafritz Washington developer and one of the region's leading philanthropists, died Thursday morning, January 12, 2023, at Sibley Memorial Hospital, in Washington, DC. They charge in their suit that Rogers and Atlas influenced her to leave all the property she controlled to the foundation. No one needed to be told that this was Gwendolyn Cafritz's last hurrah. recalls Raymond Carter, a former vice president of the Cafritz Co. "He always had a new job going. Calvin Cafritz and the Cafritz Foundation have been part of the GW Honey Nashman Center from its earliest roots in the Office of Community Service and the Neighbors Project in the 1990s through to the present, said Amy Cohen, executive director of the center. It is hard to imagine, in this competitive atmosphere, that a single person could have dominated the field as Morris Cafritz once did. So he began buying real estate speculatively, and in 1920 opened a real estate office on 15th Street NW. . Named in the lawsuit, besides Calvin, is everyone to whom Gwendolyn Cafritz made a bequest, including her former servants and grandchildren, two nephews and an old escort. He was "greatly respected and liked, even in an antisemitic society," recalls Dixon. But almost no one noticed what seemed apparent to Gore Vidal, in brief glimpses of her during the '60s: "Toward the end {of the decade}, she was always drunk whenever I saw her. At the heart of the lawsuit is a quest to gain at least partial control over the whole empire of which Gwendolyn's estate is an integral piece, over the whole legacy that Morris Cafritz created. In Washington, D.C., when Irene Bloch's husband dies, a character says, "We should build him a monument, and dedicate it to the Unknown Husband. In real estate, especially within the constricting borders of D.C., power isn't limited to those who own the land; controlling the land can be almost as good. David Kessler's top 4 tips for dealing with holiday grief. CAFRITZ V. CAFRITZ - The Washington Post It is a secretive organization: The foundation would answer no questions for this article. For him, philanthropy required partnerships that are broad, diverse, and extensive. Once it was built, he wasn't interested in it.". "I'm sure part of it was to show Herb Miller he was serious.". Kateryna Pyatybratova directs the centers Cafritz Awards program. In Memoriam: Calvin Cafritz. The foundation also gave generously to support the recent GW Hillel building renovation, as well as to provide ongoing support to other civic-minded programs at GW. Finally, there is the legacy contained in any will: The power to reward or to punish the living, to define or rearrange the narrative of a family's history. He has interests too in a booming brokerage firm he helped bankroll, and in a Midwestern shopping-center conglomerate. . He was the eldest son of real estate titan Morris Cafritz and his wife Gwendolyn. He left it as follows: Half to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. There is, for example, the very palpable legacy of real estate developed by Morris Cafritz, including several lots and office buildings downtown. She left $25,000 to a favorite former escort, a Brazilian former employee of the Inter-American Development Bank who now lives in Rio de Janeiro. Where he was meat and potatoes, earnest frugality, civic pride, she was flashing dark beauty, mercurial moods and social ambition. Rachel M. Ratowsky, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday, February 2, 2021. D.C. developer, businessman and philanthropist Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate icon Morris Cafritz and his wife Gwendolyn, died . He had emigrated from Russia as a boy with his family, which stopped briefly in New York before settling down to run a grocery store at 24th and P streets NW. "She felt that was the end, when she couldn't function socially.". This time, the receiving line snaked across the long, low living room to the far wall, where the hostess was displayed in a yellow silk armchair. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Cafritz Calvin Cafritz Washington developer and one of the region's leading philanthropists, died Thursday morning, January 12, 2023, at Sibley Memorial Hospital, in Washington, DC. Their differences were, in fact, a part of their legend, for they were one of the earliest families to bring together the two cities on the Potomac: On the one hand was the ethereal world of social and political Washington -- her world, which venerated either good birth or a seat in the Senate; on the other hand was his world, the corporeal city of sewers and streets and buildings and real citizens, men and women who grew up above grocery stores the way Morris Cafritz had. Waiters passed shrimp with cocktail sauce, while full bars offered prehistoric spirits such as bourbon and gin, defiant holdouts in the age of chardonnay and bottled water. It took lawyers and IRS agents 4 years to settle the estate, which was valued in 1968 at $66 million. He is also survived by his brother Conrad Cafritz, chairman and CEO of Cafritz Interests, a real estate company. Obituary | Betty Colvin of Warren, Arkansas | Frazer's Funeral Home Gradually, as Gwendolyn took command of it, its character changed. He was 91. The suit was filed by the middle and youngest Cafritz sons, Carter, 53, and Conrad, 51. "I used to call up the house and get her maid, and her maid would talk to me about her, and say that she was completely worn out and simply couldn't get up and get herself ready to go on the warpath," says socialite Polly Logan. All three had become local real estate developers, successful, if less spectacular, emulators of their father. She was born January 30, 1936 in Kennett, MO to the late David Richard Roberts and Betty Burbank Roberts. Calvin Cafritz Rockville, Maryland March 29, 1931 - January 12, 2023 Share Obituary: Tribute Wall Obituary & Events Share a memory Send Flowers Share a memory of Calvin Cafritz. Money -- to be sure. For now, the house is tended by at least two servants, who are listed in court documents as living there, and the grass is beautifully clipped, the pachysandra well-tended. Gwen Cafritz and her chief rival, Perle Mesta, were in fact the first of a new breed -- celebrity hostesses who openly courted the press and saw no shame in self-promotion. Receive obituaries from the city or cities of your choice. To Calvin Cafritz, she left the symbolic role of family chief, Morris Cafritz'ssuccessor in a world of primogeniture. G Guest 4 hours ago Comment Share T The staff at Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care Inc a day ago We plant this tree as a living memorial to Calvin. They have helped us to be innovative and to expand. Then there is the charitable legacy. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Conrad and Carter Cafritz are pursuing this stake in two ways: One is a lawsuit naming all her beneficiaries and her executors -- William P. Rogers, Martin Atlas and Riggs National Bank. Senator Barry Goldwater . "That what she wanted was pointless is not for us to judge.". Jane Lipton Cafritz was elected in the second half of 2022 to succeed her husband as the foundations president and CEO. Philanthropic 50: Calvin and Jane Cafritz: They Sing For More Than "Decedent's condition deteriorated after the death of her husband in 1964 and grew worse in the following years. Today, he is married to Peggy Cooper Cafritz, who is a local power in the arts and in liberal political causes -- and the only Cafritz listed in Who's Who. The foundation is Washington's largest source of private funds earmarked exclusively for local projects, large enough to give the person who controls it a potentially shaping influence on the city. He was preceded in death by his brother Carter Cafritz. Cafritz was a tireless promoter of the city. "She wanted something, and she put up with a lot of {expletive}, and she got it. In Remembrance. Washington, DC 20007 Thanks to the support of the Cafritz Foundation for the last 25 years, CEPL has supported organizational transformation across the public sector in the city. 1050 30th St. NW "Very sort of philosophic, sort of honorable." Gwendolyn left the $14 million landmark to the foundation, with the very Gwendolyn-like wish that it become "a center in which scholars, statesmen and civic leaders may conduct research, conferences, seminars and other func-tions relating to issues of interest tomankind.". Cafritzs passing was confirmed by the charitable organization named after Morris and his wife, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. The India-born founder and CEO of District-based software company Hunch Analytics is an active benefactor of both Washington and Indian causes and nonprofit groups. But he's much different from his father, in a lot of ways. He's truly out to make a big impact on the city, I think. Calvin Cafritz - Rockville, Maryland , Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky We hoped to let the public know about these outstanding individuals and to send a message to other excellent government employees that their dedication and considerable accomplishments are valued." He is survived by his loving and devoted wife, Jane Lipton Cafritz, a distinguished Washington lawyer, whom he married on June 1, 2000. Conrad, who was a losing bidder for the job, waged a lengthy challenge, arguing that Western was giving short shrift to the minority partners whose participation qualified the partnership for the contract award; though he finally lost last year, he succeeded in forcing a renegotiation of terms between Western and the Redevelopment Land Agency. Marvin Katz Obituary - Richardson, TX - Dignity Memorial And to the publicity-loathing cave dwellers, the Georgetown hostesses who were society leaders by birth, Gwendolyn's so-visible efforts made her a figure of fun. Cafritz Family Obituaries | Cafritz Last Name Obits ", While she cultivated the mighty, Morris looked closer to home, helping to found the Washington Community Chest, becoming an activist in local Jewish groups. We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. "Jews in general just didn't figure. Food has always been a go-to for people in mourning. Cafritzs encouragement has particularly strengthened the Washington-area communitys appreciation of textiles as a vital form of artistic expression and global cultural heritage.". The 2019 Philanthropic 50 - Washington Life Magazine Michael J. Dowling, who became the Cafritzes' butler in the early '60s, describes a tragically common decline. The foundation, which Calvin led for over 30 years (after his mother Gwendolyn died in 1988), focuses on programs in the arts and humanities. He began with houses, ultimately building about 10,000 homes in the Washington area. It is intriguing to imagine what different directions Conrad Cafritz might urge -- and how much they would draw from the activism of his wife, who has likely pondered what difference the Cafritz endowment might make to her lifelong campaign to wrest the arts from Washington's white upper classes. Since 1989, Cafritz led the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, a charitable organization named for his parents. To Edward R. Murrow, in a 1956 interview, she said that to speak of Washington cocktail parties was "unfair to Washington. January 2023 - Page 189 - obituaries death . There are also real estate assets at Arlingtons 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, which is the former home of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. His father, Morris, established one of the Washington region's leading philanthropic entities, the Morris and . ", As is often true when the secretive disease of alcoholism is combined with the see-no-evil sociability of Washington, Gwendolyn's problem was rarely recognized. She was multilingual and had studied art history at the University of Budapest. Remembering Calvin Cafritz - Meyer Foundation . With that philosophy he built a substantial reputation for philanthropy. None of the Cafritz sons can be said to need the money that is at stake. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. March 29, 1931 - Services Guestbook Condolences. By 1915 he was known locally as "The Bowling King" but still restlessly sought an opportunity that would truly engage him. That's why her final victory rather delighted me. Echovita offers a solidarity program that gives back the funds generated to families. Another longtime beneficiary of Cafritz Foundation support has been The Textile Museum. When the Duke and Duchess of Windsor came and danced downstairs in "the Club," with the dance floor lighted from below. Vidal wrote, "Irene's evening dress was much too vivid, too personal, too fashionable for the calculated dowdiness" of a dinner in old-line Washington. She carried her isolation to her grave. Send simple, comforting meals with Home Chef. In the last half-century, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation has awarded more than $507 million in grants. So if some of these nostalgic callers had once doubted or mocked her, with her grand house and her grand airs and her husband's enormous fortune, it was surely too late, in 1986, for any of these social acquaintances to want to shatter this fading legend. Click here for full story from WTOP and the Washington Business Journal. Mr. D.C. developer, businessman and philanthropist Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate icon Morris Cafritz and his wife Gwendolyn, died Thursday at Sibley Memorial Hospital. Her statements in the press, even the adoring press of yore, suggest at the least a daunting mother. There are, superficially, great similarities among the three brothers, who all share their mother's dark coloring. He is also survived by his three children, Elliot Cafritz (Lauren), Anthony Cafritz (Pearl), and Elizabeth Peltekian(Viken); five grandchildren, Sam, Alexander, Seb, Aram, and Van; three stepchildren, Olivia Rubenstein, Irina Rubenstein, and James Speyer; and two step-grandchildren Evan and MJSpeyer. Chances are, many Washingtonians might not even realize how much real estate the Cafritz family is responsible for in the area. Calvin's younger brothers, Conrad and Carter, are behind-the- scenes players in many business and charitable ventures players. Mild, self-effacing, decorous, humble, and unfailingly courteous, Mr. Cafritz led by example and always with a smile. Several friends read this changeability as part of a larger ambivalence about whether he wants to be an insider or a maverick, heir to a famous tradition or the rebel who subverts it. The singers belonged to the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program (YAP), one of the opera world's most prestigious breeding grounds for the next generation of Pavarottis and Renee . Mr. Cafritz is also survived by his brother Conrad Cafritz. Cardiac Arrest.Most Shocking Celebrity Deaths of All Time, Over the last few decades, there have been some shocking and untimely deaths of few celebrities, Celebrity deaths in 2022: Remembering the famous faces we lost this year . In the '70s she became a near-recluse. Calvin Frazier - Wikipedia We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. In May, Jane Lipton Cafritz hosted a lunch that brought together a number of young opera singers and many of their supporters and admirers. Conrad's strange, and doesn't mind people thinking that he's strange; he kind of encourages it.". But it was a heady enough wine to call out 300 guests, and the ghosts of many more who had preceded them. Calvin R Cafritz, (202) 223-3100, 1642 29th St NW, Washington, DC Conrad and Carter Cafritz are claiming that Rogers and Atlas "secured domination and control" over Gwendolyn, controlling all of her assets and making her the figurehead president of both the foundation and the real estate businesses, "notwithstanding that she was, and Defendants Atlas and Rogers knew she was, incapable of discharging the duties incumbent upon her in such positions." 91. "I think it has the clean linear design of a Botticelli, and the elegance of an English portrait," she burbles, in her faintly accented great-lady voice, "and that's the way I would like my children to remember me. With him at the helm, the foundation distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to a range of organizations, including the National Gallery of Art, Bread for the City and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Washington Harbour purchase, along with a current joint venture to develop a riverfront office and hotel project in Rosslyn, has caused speculation that Conrad Cafritz is increasingly eager to be identified with high-quality, high-profile projects that might bring him more notice. He will always be remembered and loved by our team and the thousands of people whose lives he touched for his humility, kindness and willingness to go above and beyond in service of our great city and community.. He died on Thursday, Jan. 12, at age 91. While he was head of the foundation, Cafritz distributed grants to places like The National Gallery of Art, Washington National Opera and The Kennedy Center. We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. "Those were her orders: The Scotch should never be let go beneath the neck of the decanter. . Following the death of his father, Calvin became president of The Cafritz Co., Cafritz Construction Co. and Ambassador, Inc. in 1964. "Maybe we try a little harder because our family name is well-known," he told a reporter in 1965. "Carter, he always did what the other two did," says Casey. At the time the lawsuit was filed, family sources told The Washington Post that the marital trust was worth $84 million. Nor, apparently, is it for us to judge what her sons now want from a D.C. Superior Court judge: All three declined to beinterviewed. "I make no other provision in this will for the benefit of my children," it states, "as their financial needs are adequately provided for" by the old agreement giving them $7 million each. There is a poignant moment in Gwendolyn's 1956 interview with Murrow when she points out a portrait of herself that hangs on the wall. In the 1400 block of Spring Road NW is a row of seven almost identical walk-up apartment buildings. Some basic help and starters when you have to write a tribute to someone you love. For the sons of Gwendolyn Cafritz, to accept her last will and testament would be to allow her, in more than one sense, the last word.
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