He was 91 at the time he died. "Old Washington was very antisemitic, as you know," continues Vidal, whose childhood here as the stepson of lawyer and investor Hugh D. Auchincloss and the grandson of Oklahoma Sen. Thomas Gore gave him an intimate education in Washington society. "Right at the moment he could be most charming, he does something to undercut it," says one friend. But Carter and Conrad Cafritz are not named in their mother's will. At seated dinners for 22, she entertained ambassadors and justices, senators and Cabinet secretaries. 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. ", Interviews suggest the sons will not lack for evidence to support their argument. Cafritz is survived by Jane, his third wife, who is a lawyer in the area. Mr. Cafritz recognized and championed this work, and its success is a part of his inspiring legacy., Throughout the years, he gave feedback constructively and in a helpful manner, said Jim Robinson, executive director of GW CEPL. There were of course the grand exceptions like the Warburgs, and Walter Lippmann, and Arthur Krock . Memorial services will be held at 2:00 pm on December 2 at First Presbyterian Church of Richardson with David Schaefers officiating. We'll help you find the right words to comfort your family member or loved one during this difficult time. Finally, there is an emotional legacy to be earned -- or perhaps shed. He was preceded in death by his brother Carter Cafritz. January 27, 2023. Decedent lacked sufficient capacity to, and did not, dispose of her property with judgment and understanding, considering the nature, character and extent of her estate.". ", Her drinking got out of control, he agrees, shortly after Morris Cafritz's sudden death of a heart attack in 1964. She could no longer make an entrance, of course. There are hints too that he has social ambitions on Gwendolyn's scale, if not exactly of her type. What do the younger sons of the celebrated Washington hostess hope to gain by waging legal war over their mother's will? She had not given a party for eight years, and even then, she had been memorializing the past; the real tradition, the old wine being decanted on this lambent June evening, had been decades in storage. 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. He died on Thursday, Jan. 12, at age 91. 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. Write your message of sympathy today. But it was a heady enough wine to call out 300 guests, and the ghosts of many more who had preceded them. 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. Today he shares office space and support staff with Conrad's growing interests, but for the most part pursues his own deals. GECS offers business development, bid proposal writing training, and resume preparation services for individuals seeking employment with the Federal Government, and provides knowledge management services to assist businesses with succession planning. Twenty-four years later, when Gwendolyn Cafritz died, her estate consisted of two parts: the marital trust established under Morris's will, and her own property -- the landmark house on Foxhall Road and various real estate, stocks, bonds and savings accounts. In 2001, the Cafritz Foundation gave $1 million toward the Cafritz Conference Center in the University Student Center. By 1967, records show a sprinkling of grants to highbrow cultural causes: the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, the Opera Society of Washington, the Corcoran Gallery. Dean Liesl Riddle of the GW College of Professional Studies (CPS), where GW CEPL has been housed since 2005, said, Our college was launched to make an economic and social impact through innovative professional programs that cultivate talent for employers and propel students careers forward. Of the three sons, Calvin seems to have had the best relationship with his mother. The outcome of the lawsuit is unpredictable, though clearly it will be an uphill fight: Showing that someone was alcoholic is very different from demonstrating that she was incapable of writing a will. Devoted father to Laurence (Sherri) Cafritz and Jodi (Mark Bronsky) Cafr The house on Foxhall Road, completed in 1938, was explicitly designed to fulfill that ambition. The majority of this property was already owned by the Cafritz Foundation, but Gwendolyn was partial owner of many of the buildings; even a limited power to control their disposition would presumably attract men with ambitions in Washington real estate. Says a friend, "He thinks they're a lot of fuddy-duddies living in the 17th century." Yet Morris made little impression on Gwendolyn's social world, and she often went out or took vacations alone. "I'm sure part of it was to show Herb Miller he was serious.". When Morris Cafritz died in 1964, his estate was worth $66 million, mostly in the form of stock in dozens of closely held corporations he had established to manage his real estate. Mild, self-effacing, decorous, humble, and unfailingly courteous, Mr. Cafritz led by example and always with a smile. A document filed in probate court says an initial inventory of her own property exceeded $90 million; however, inventories filed with her will account only for a little more than $80 million. In Memoriam: Calvin Cafritz. "He took me into the kitchen and showed me how the cook would leave coffee for him in the morning," remembers the friend. They charge in their suit that Rogers and Atlas influenced her to leave all the property she controlled to the foundation. Once it was built, he wasn't interested in it.". 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. It is a jolting reminder that Peggy and Conrad, a black woman married to a white Jewish millionaire in a racially divided city, represent a fascinating reshuffling of the social deck that produced the polarized marriage of Morris and Gwendolyn. That's what we call a success story. It's surprising how much a musical selection can affect mourning. They keep china and glassware sufficient to serve hundreds. Site design by, D.C. developer and head of the Cafritz Foundation. Conrad's strange, and doesn't mind people thinking that he's strange; he kind of encourages it.". 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. Under an earlier agreement between Gwendolyn and her sons, she gave up her power to "appoint" one-quarter of the trust, meaning that $21 million -- or $7 million each -- would automatically go to her sons upon her death. Gwendolyn Cafritz died of cancer last November. Distinguished D.C. Government Employees Recognized at Cafritz Awards Gala, Office of Communications & Marketing If you experience a barrier that affects your ability to access content on this page, let us know via the. His commitment to causes and institutions extended beyond writing checks to giving time and energy. When he died, his estate would be the largest ever probated in the District of Columbia; it would take teams of lawyers and IRS agents four years to settle the estate, finally 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. And it is over the foundation, established to memorialize the name and works of the Cafritz family, that the Cafritz family is now at war. Irene Bloch, as she is called, is a wealthy department store owner's wife who mounts a relentless campaign for acceptance in Washington society. He was for years the president of the Jewish Community Center and donated the land for its first headquarters on Q Street NW. He died on Thursday, Jan. 12, at age 91. Small grants went to 15 more Jewish charities, and the rest to such local charities as boys clubs and hospital funds. 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. Funeral arrangement under the care ofSAGEL BLOOMFIELD DANZANSKY GOLDBERG FUNERAL CARE INC. Mr. Information and advice to help you cope with the death of someone important to you. Morris grew up working in the store, stalking the Maine Avenue wharf for the freshest fish sold there and learning to love the adolescent city he saw around him. With such a ruling, the trust would pass to the three sons, as outlined in Morris's will. a medically-induced . He was 91. He was an excellent listener and always got both the big picture and important details by asking insightful questions. What kind of arrangement is appropriate, where should you send it, and when should you send an alternative? Special Neighborhood Hang Out: Say Cheese! And in the two decades of her advocacy, she has established a high profile -- and raised a lot of hackles among the old guard that runs most of the city's major cultural institutions. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation in December 1988 and since February 1989 had served as Board Chairman. "Carter, he always did what the other two did," says Casey. ", Gwendolyn's estate is worth at least $140 million, including both her personal holdings and a trust passed on from Morris Cafritz's will (see box, Page 32). 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. He was 91. He started by buying -- for $700,000, in 1922 -- the equivalent of 90 city blocks in Petworth, including the Columbia Golf Club, and ultimately built 3,000 houses there. You have funeral questions, we have answers. Roger was born on September 30, 1952 in Toulon, the son. Receive obituaries from the city or cities of your choice. As he stood by her chair, he could name at a glance quite a few of the guests -- Chief Justice and Mrs. Warren Burger . Calvin Cafritz Death - Calvin Cafritz, a real estate developer, businessman, and philanthropist in the District of Columbia, passed away on Thursday, January 12, 2023, at Sibley Memorial Hospital. Your email address will not be published. By the time of her death, however, Calvin was still the son closest to his mother. Money -- to be sure. "I just thought she maybe had had enough of running around, and she was maybe going to stay in a while. Influence over the city's future -- no doubt. Calvin Cafritz Obituary It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Calvin Cafritz (Rockville, Maryland), who passed away on January 12, 2023, at the age of 91, leaving to mourn family and friends. That's why her final victory rather delighted me. As you draw close to the famous burgundy front door, with its surrounding marble, you can see that the paint is cracking and fading to pink; and greenish stains from metal window fixtures are starting to weep down the white brick walls. "Jews in general just didn't figure. Cafritzs encouragement has particularly strengthened the Washington-area communitys appreciation of textiles as a vital form of artistic expression and global cultural heritage.". Most of the band's song titles are too profane for citation in mainstream reviews (or newspaper magazines such as this); one, a song that would surely have outraged the vocalist/guitarist's grandparents, is titled "You Look Like a Jew.". She was a member of Main Street Church of Christ in Monticello, AR. Following the death of his father, Calvin became president of The Cafritz Co., Cafritz Construction Co. and Ambassador, Inc. in 1964. 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. 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. There are no events scheduled. 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. "She felt that was the end, when she couldn't function socially.". James Edward Cafritz <p>James Edward Cafritz of Bethesda, MD, passed away on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, at the age of 90. When she drafted her third and last will in 1981, she wrote a final clause that reads almost like an afterthought, but resounds in the lawsuit now underway: "It is my wish that our descendents {sic} shall maintain an interest in the affairs of THE MORRIS AND GWENDOLYN CAFRITZ FOUNDATION and its philanthropic purposes and I desire that, following my death, CALVIN CAFRITZ be elected to serve on the board of the Foundation.". Conrad and his first wife entertained often in their Georgetown house in the '60s, giving parties -- often liberal fund-raisers -- that offered cozy intimations of radical chic. Under the terms of an old agreement, each of the sons will automatically receive $7 million, tax-free, in recompense for having forfeited, in the late '60s, some money from a different trust. We will miss his gracious and generous presence.. All rights reserved. In 1971, Mr. Cafritz resigned to form Calvin Cafritz Enterprises, with investments in aviation, communications, and Washington area real estate. Her skin had an unhealthy, pouchy pallor; extending an uncertain hand, she had the air of a dreamer deploying remembered charms. 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. Gradually, he branched into entertainment, operating the first open-air movies in Washington (a matter of setting up chairs in vacant lots), and then a bowling alley and pool hall in Southeast, near the Navy Yard. That task was left to her closest relatives. Yet in Morris's absence, the family was anything but the tight-knit dynasty he had paved the way for. Calvins father Morris built the now-demolished Ambassador Hotel at 14. and K Streets NW, homes next to the National Arboretum, the Greenwich Forest neighborhood in Bethesda and several office buildings downtown. No one needed to be told that this was Gwendolyn Cafritz's last hurrah. 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. By 1915 he was known locally as "The Bowling King" but still restlessly sought an opportunity that would truly engage him. Another longtime beneficiary of Cafritz Foundation support has been The Textile Museum. He was "greatly respected and liked, even in an antisemitic society," recalls Dixon. Ridgewell's had produced, out of retirement, the same waiter who had announced the guests eight years before. Your email address will not be published. The daughter of a Hungarian immunologist who had a role in devising the early Wasserman test to detect syphilis, Gwen Cafritz was the opposite of her husband. 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. Her husband, along with her parents, was buried in Washington Hebrew Cemetery, in Southeast, in a nicely landscaped, square plot designed for four under a monumental headstone reading CAFRITZ. For another, he is said to alternate in seconds between a manic intensity and a mumbling diffidence. We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. Mr. Cafritz began his career with Cafritz Construction Company in 1947. He resigned seven years later to form Cafritz Enterprises. Conrad's ex-wife, former D.C. School Board Chairwoman Peggy Cooper Cafritz, recently resurfaced after her art-filled home was destroyed in a fire last year. From the others he solicited their names, bending to murmur prompts into the ear of the star. He is a leading supporter of the Global India Fund, and the Ukapav Indian-American Scholarship Foundation. Recommend Calvin's obituary to your friends. ", The Cafritzes slept in separate bedrooms, Morris rising at dawn to get to the office. All three had become local real estate developers, successful, if less spectacular, emulators of their father. The Morris and. He was 91. The entire time, he fought with gloves off, publicly charging his rivals with bad faith. "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. "Carter Cafritz is just a genuine nice fellow," says Raymond Carter, a former vice president of the Cafritz Co. "Conrad is more in the father's mold. 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. Even her friends laughed at the way she would seat herself intently in the lobby of the Paris Hotel in Monte Carlo, at a table "very strategically placed," in the words of one, to court the passing society. Expand the Memories and Condolences form. . "He's always very, very protective of the Cafritz name, as if it were his own. 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. 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. The only thing worse might be to watch deals go on without him: Along with becoming chairman of the foundation, Calvin Cafritz has taken the helm of the old Cafritz Co., andis reportedly trying to bring it tonew life. He served in these roles until 2022, when Jane Lipton Cafritz, his wife, was elected Board Chair and President and CEO. He has assembled a group of about 14 local hotels, including the Georgetown Inn and One Washington Circle. 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. He was 91. Cafritz is survived by his third wife, Jane Lipton Cafritz, a Washington lawyer whom he married in 2000; his three children; three stepchildren (including Olivia Rubenstein, who earned a masters degree from GSEHD in 2018); and numerous grandchildren and step-grandchildren, as well as his brother, Conrad Cafritz, chairman and CEO of Cafritz Interests. His father, Morris, established one of the Washington region's leading philanthropic entities, the Morris and . Small wonder that, as he approached his forties unmarried, he was one of the most eligible bachelors within the small, closed circle of Washington's Jewish society. Ways to honor Calvin Cafritz's life and legacy. Calvin Cafritz, D.C. developer and head of the Cafritz Foundation, dies at 91. bizjournals.com - Michael Neibauer 20h. Since 1989, Cafritz led the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, a charitable organization named for his parents. 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. "I think he went along," says a longtime business associate, Irwin Altman. She carried her isolation to her grave. "The decanter always had to be full," Dowling says. Published by The Washington Post on Jan. 22, 2023. She was multilingual and had studied art history at the University of Budapest. But Conrad has rolled out impressive legal artillery, captained by former White House counsel Lloyd N. Cutler, and seems prepared to dig in for a long siege -- at least long enough, perhaps, to wring a settlement from his opponents. He too has denied the sons' allegations in his formal answer to their complaint. Upon Morris Cafritz's death in 1964, he became president of the Cafritz Co.; and in the first will Gwendolyn wrote, in 1969, which included all three sons, she made Calvin an executor and left him the Foxhall Road house. 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.
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