This is in alignment with GW efforts to benefit the local community., Cafritz was a leading force in the establishment of GWs Center for Excellence in Public Leadership (CEPL) in 1997, to help support the D.C. government just as it was coming out of receivership from the U.S. Congress. Of the three Cafritz sons, says restaurateur Herb White, "Conrad seems to be the one who has something to prove to himself.". "When I heard about it, I wrote Conrad and told him I thought it was a horrible thing he and his brother were doing to his mother," says Dorothy L. Casey, a retired secretary who worked for the Cafritz Co. for decades, reflecting a widespread tendency to speak of Carter as his brother's satellite. Mr. Cafritz said that the awards are designed to "shine a light on the contributions of extraordinary government employees. 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. He died on Thursday, Jan. 12, at age 91. With that philosophy he built a substantial reputation for philanthropy. We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. Among the guests that June evening were her three sons, Calvin, Carter and Conrad. Mr. Cafritz has been an exemplary advocate for excellence in government and nonprofits in D.C., and the foundation has been a force for community self-efficacy. CALVIN CAFRITZ, CARTER CAFRITZ, CONRAD CAFRITZ WILLIAM CAFRITZ AND BUFFY CAFRITZ The Cafritz name has been a Washington fi xture for almost a century, with Morris and Gwen Cafritz's 1937 Foxhall Road mansion an epicenter of D.C. social life. Then there is the charitable legacy. Through his dedication to the Foundation and his beloved Washington, DC community, Mr. Cafritz was deeply committed to building a more just and beautiful region with access to opportunities for all. He began with houses, ultimately building about 10,000 homes in the Washington area. Of the three sons, Calvin seems to have had the best relationship with his mother. Calvin Cafritz, a successful businessman, was involved in real estate for more than fifty years. And by 1970, arts and humanities took the largest share of the funding. In plain English, Gwendolyn Cafritz's two younger sons are contending in court that their mother was too feebleminded to write her will; document requests filed in court suggest they may try to prove she was incapacitated by alcoholism. Write your message of sympathy today. 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. You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or plant a tree in memory of Calvin Cafritz. 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. Yet he uncomplainingly supported all of Gwendolyn's efforts, and was said to adore his colorful bride. 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.. ", Other documents filed in court indicate that the sons will argue their mother was incapacitated by alcoholism. Washington, DC 20006. 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. Roger was born on September 30, 1952 in Toulon, the son. After their marriage in 1981, Conrad and Peggy bought Sen. Stuart Symington's house in the Foxhall Road area, studied it for a while, then tore it down to build a new house. . "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. Yet in Morris's absence, the family was anything but the tight-knit dynasty he had paved the way for. You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or plant a tree in memory of Calvin Cafritz. 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. The judge's decision, though in favor of Conrad and Carter Cafritz, is of little. "Right at the moment he could be most charming, he does something to undercut it," says one friend. Read more on bizjournals.com. Mr. After Morris Cafritz died, his close associate Martin Atlas became executive vice president of the company, and vice president and treasurer of the Cafritz Foundation, while Gwendolyn Cafritz ultimately became president of both. 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. Between 1925 and 1941, Cafritz built more than 85 apartment houses, including 15 large luxury buildings, such as the Majestic and the Hightowers on 16th Street NW and the Westchester on Cathedral Avenue NW. To Martin Atlas, she left $50,000 and a Chagall painting. Mr. None of the Cafritz sons can be said to need the money that is at stake. Obituary. "The decanter always had to be full," Dowling says. 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. 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. "He just wanted to build, build, build, build!" "He's part of a legendary family, and he's the only one who seems interested in keeping up the legend," says one friend. But she had a disconcertingly self-serious way of advertising it. He is also survived by his brother Conrad Cafritz, chairman and CEO of Cafritz Interests, a real estate company. 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. The family observed Jewish holidays, and the sons attended religious school at Washington Hebrew Congregation on weekends. He was 91. 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. 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. 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 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. He has always been involved in the bread and butter real estate of housing, from building single-family homes in Prince William County to renovating apartment complexes in Alexandria; he was a major beneficiary of the Washington condo boom. In relation to real estate, Calvin Cafritz dove deep into area projects over the years like the Riverdale Park Station in Prince Georges County as well as developments at 5333 Connecticut Ave. NW and 1725 I St. NW. But it was a heady enough wine to call out 300 guests, and the ghosts of many more who had preceded them. All rights reserved. For some people, the best send-off is one that they would have loved to attendthemselves: a big party. And given the life she had lived and the kind of friends she had cultivated, few people were close enough to her to understand why. As time went on, she lost complete control, and she had to drink more. Her two younger sons have also filed a separate petition that pursues only the marital trust. "That what she wanted was pointless is not for us to judge.". 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. ", The Cafritzes slept in separate bedrooms, Morris rising at dawn to get to the office. In any case, he was at least 20 years older than his bride when they married in 1929. Home To Edward R. Murrow, in a 1956 interview, she said that to speak of Washington cocktail parties was "unfair to Washington. Mr. Following the death of his father, Calvin became president of The Cafritz Co., Cafritz Construction Co. and Ambassador, Inc. in 1964. At the same time, he and Tompkins had the foresight to buy the land now known as Pentagon City. Then there is the foundation itself, with its powerful endowment for the city. [2] He is buried in the Washington Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, Washington, D.C. Philanthropy [ edit] Was believed to be 102. In 1971, he resigned from the company amid reports of conflict with his mother, and by the time she wrote a 1977 will, all three sons, including Calvin, had been dealt out of any inheritance. Cafritz died in 1964 of a heart attack. Cafritz developed real estate here for more than four decades, until his death in 1964, and by the sheer volume and variety of his building activities was for a time the undisputed king of his field. "I'm sure part of it was to show Herb Miller he was serious.". Rogers had served as her personal attorney since her husband, Washington real estate magnate Morris Cafritz, died in 1964. The best poems for funerals, memorial services., and cards. 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. The house was not so much well-tended as beautifully preserved, arrested in time; and the party duplicated the past in every anachronistic detail. When he died, his estate was the largest ever probated in the District of Columbia. Cafritz was a tireless promoter of the city. In his later years he established one of the Washington region's leading philanthropic entities, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. In particular, he has carried on an epic feud with Herbert S. Miller, chairman of Western Development Corp. Western won a city contract in 1985 to develop the so-called Portals site at the foot of the 14th Street Bridge, potentially the largest commercial development in the city. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Calvin Cafritz to show support. A minor but colorful part of Cafritz's legacy was an idea borrowed from Harry Wardman, his predecessor as the leader of the field. The mission of the foundation is improving the quality of life for all Washington, D.C., metropolitan-area residents, Boerstling said. All rights reserved. In the 1400 block of Spring Road NW is a row of seven almost identical walk-up apartment buildings. "Conrad was persistent as hell in getting that project," says one person familiar with Conrad's business. He was preceded in death by his brother Carter Cafritz. 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. All three had become local real estate developers, successful, if less spectacular, emulators of their father. What kind of arrangement is appropriate, where should you send it, and when should you send an alternative? In addition to his loving family, he leaves behind a long-time member of the family household, Lilian Punzalan, and countless admiring friends. 5.8K. She was multilingual and had studied art history at the University of Budapest. 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. There are hints too that he has social ambitions on Gwendolyn's scale, if not exactly of her type. Asked in 1954 why all her sons bore two-syllable names beginning with "C," she replied, "Morris names all children, horses, dogs, apartment houses and everything around here. a medically-induced . "Lots of times she could drink and she knew exactly what she was doing. 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. Her hair was still a lacquered black, heavily dressed as always at the back of her head. Calvin Cafritz, their eldest son, became Board Chairman in 1989 and in 1993, he was elected President and CEO of the Foundation. 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. The longtime GW supporter had a unique relationship with the university and the city of Washington, D.C. Center for Excellence in Public Leadership, Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, GW is committed to digital accessibility. His father, Morris, established one of the Washington region's leading philanthropic entities, the Morris and . To Calvin Cafritz, she left the symbolic role of family chief, Morris Cafritz'ssuccessor in a world of primogeniture. Old press notices, written in the uncritical fashion of the day, recount her summers in Monte Carlo; her typical day in Washington (beginning with a ride in her limousine -- license number 2301, to match her address -- to the Supreme Court or the Capitol, to take in a decision or an interesting hearing); her winter trips to Palm Beach; her shopping trips in Paris; her ladies lunches at the Mayflower Hotel. Marvin Katz was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Dr. Donald LaVerne Katz and Lila Maxine Katz on December 12, 1935. It is also different from proving that a respected lawyer and former Cabinet member, in league with a longtime family associate, unfairly loaded the dice. There is, for example, the very palpable legacy of real estate developed by Morris Cafritz, including several lots and office buildings downtown. "I've just bought 100 acres of downtown Washington," he was fond of saying. That's why her final victory rather delighted me. The strange paradox of her marriage was that Morris's money enabled her to carry out her lavish social dreams, while the family's being Jewish also placed limits on her chances of realizing them. Influence over the city's future -- no doubt. 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. He has interests too in a booming brokerage firm he helped bankroll, and in a Midwestern shopping-center conglomerate. Only between the lines or in conversations with old friends can one make out how nakedly she wore her ambitions, and how hard she was working to measure up. 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. 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. Tech Tip: How to Turn Documents and Images into PDFs in Android. All three sons were rumored to have difficult relationships with their mother, and it was rare to find them together, bearing in unison the family standard. 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. Peggy Cooper Cafritz, a doyenne of Washington arts and education, who tried to mend many of the city's social and racial wounds, created one of the nation's leading arts-intensive high schools,. "She wanted something, and she put up with a lot of {expletive}, and she got it. She was forever trying to tell me some long story I could never make head or tail of. He was 91. There is no photo or video of Calvin Cafritz.Be the first to share a memory to pay tribute.
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