calvin cafritz obituary

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. Calvin, Carter and Conrad, all of Washington, and 13 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his brother Carter Cafritz. He was 91. 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. . ", 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. 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." ", 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). January 27, 2023. "I just thought she maybe had had enough of running around, and she was maybe going to stay in a while. They charge in their suit that Rogers and Atlas influenced her to leave all the property she controlled to the foundation. Morris Cafritz is remembered more for the quantity than for the aesthetic quality of his works. Read more on bizjournals.com. 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. 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. Betty Lou Roberts Colvin, age 84 of Warren, AR passed away November 5, 2020 at Chapel Woods Nursing Home in Warren, AR. In the '70s she became a near-recluse. 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. By the time of her death, however, Calvin was still the son closest to his mother. Calvin Cafritz, a successful businessman, was involved in real estate for more than fifty years. 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. including, but not limited to, any facilities located in Washington, D.C.; Palm Beach, Florida; or Monte Carlo, Monaco." For one thing, he has a dark, avowedly cynical sense of humor. No one needed to be told that this was Gwendolyn Cafritz's last hurrah. 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. Rachel M. Ratowsky, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday, February 2, 2021. But public records show that, like any organization privately controlled by a very small number of people, it is very susceptible to change by a determined leader. 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. 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. In 1929 he also built the since-demolished Ambassador Hotel, at 14th and K streets NW, where he and his family lived until 1938. At seated dinners for 22, she entertained ambassadors and justices, senators and Cabinet secretaries. In 2001, the Cafritz Foundation gave $1 million toward the Cafritz Conference Center in the University Student Center. Money -- to be sure. But he reached outside that circle when he finally married. In high school, for example, Conrad stood out even among his privileged classmates at St. Albans. Calvin Cafritz, their eldest son, became Board Chairman in 1989 and in 1993, he was elected President and CEO of the Foundation. And even then, there was always fussing. Cafritz exemplified what it means to be an inspirational leader and a great human being, said Pyatybratova. It has been variously reviewed as "one of the more important bands to emerge from the new head-slamming school of American guitar/noise bands" and "the gnarliest, most scuzzed out molotov to hit the streets since the heady days of Teenage Jesus and The Jerks." In 2021 alone some 430 grants were given to 413 nonprofits of all sizes, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Washington National Opera (through the Cafritz Young Artists of Washington National Opera program), the Phillips Collection, the National Gallery of Art, and countless colleges, universities,and schools throughout the DC area. I just make speeches.". 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. He has assembled a group of about 14 local hotels, including the Georgetown Inn and One Washington Circle. Cafritzs passing was confirmed by the charitable organization named after Morris and his wife, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Aubinoe and Edwards also designed the Cafritzes' dramatic house on Foxhall Road. Devoted father to Laurence (Sherri) Cafritz and Jodi (Mark Bronsky) Cafr Required fields are marked *. D.C. developer, businessman and philanthropist Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate icon Morris Cafritz and his wife Gwendolyn, died . 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. The Cafritz Foundation is also responsible for developing Art Place at Fort Totten, a huge mixed-use project in the Northeast D.C. area. All three had become local real estate developers, successful, if less spectacular, emulators of their father. Mr. Cafritz began his career with Cafritz Construction Company in 1947. Following the death of his father, Calvin became president of The Cafritz Co., Cafritz Construction Co. and Ambassador, Inc. in 1964. "Calvin is a very sweet, very nice person," says D.C. lawyer Max N. Berry. There are no events scheduled. Giving to charity is a meaningful way to honor someone who has died. Mr. The entire time, he fought with gloves off, publicly charging his rivals with bad faith. He was 91. Calvin Cafritz, a native and longtime resident of Washington, DC, was born March 29, 1931, as the eldest son of Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz. One possible reason for that -- and for any bitterness that might motivate the lawsuit -- is suggested by the suit's underlying argument: "For many years, beginning at a time not precisely known to plaintiffs, but at least by the time of the death of the late Morris Cafritz, the Decedent began suffering from a number of conditions that resulted in physical and mental debilitation," reads the complaint. After college and military service, he rejoined the firm in 1956 and served in various positions, until the death of his father in 1964 when he became President of Cafritz Company, Cafritz Construction Company, and Ambassador, Inc. During his tenure, the companies developed, constructed, and leased a number of additional office buildings in Washington's central business district. "Lots of times she could drink and she knew exactly what she was doing. CAFRITZ James Edward Cafritz James Edward Cafritz of Bethesda, MD, passed away on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, at the age of 90. 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. 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. Kateryna Pyatybratova directs the centers Cafritz Awards program. 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. (202) 338-4833, Georgetown Media Group. 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. Despite leaving a fragmented recording history, both as a singer and guitarist, Frazier was an associate of Robert Johnson, and recorded alongside Johnny Shines, Sampson Pittman, T.J. Fowler, Alberta Adams, Jimmy Milner, Baby Boy Warren, Boogie Woogie . There is still a sign directing deliveries to the back of the house, as if tradesmen were still streaming up to the front door to importune the lady of the house, and Ridgewell's were due at any moment with more shrimp and cocktail sauce. Conrad's strange, and doesn't mind people thinking that he's strange; he kind of encourages it.". His faith was great enough to lead him into investments that would later seem visionary: He developed the Temple Heights tract at Connecticut and Florida, for example, buying the land in 1945 with developer Charles H. Tompkins and sitting on it for 12 years before selling the northern part for development of the Washington Hilton, and building the two Universal Buildings on the southern part of the site. 91. There are, superficially, great similarities among the three brothers, who all share their mother's dark coloring. But of the property over which she had control, Gwendolyn left her children only "such photographs, family mementos, and similar objects of domestic use or ornamentation as my executors, in their absolute discretion, shall determine that I would wish to have preserved for my children.". To Calvin Cafritz, she left the symbolic role of family chief, Morris Cafritz'ssuccessor in a world of primogeniture. . They had a large fund-raiser for Jesse Jackson in 1988, and for Conrad's 50th birthday, Peggy gave him an enormous black-tie dinner at home. With that philosophy he built a substantial reputation for philanthropy. Obituary. Another longtime beneficiary of Cafritz Foundation support has been The Textile Museum. It is a secretive organization: The foundation would answer no questions for this article. They have helped us to be innovative and to expand. 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. All three stayed in Washington to work at some variation of their father's trade. The George Washington University community is remembering the life of Calvin Cafritz, a businessman, philanthropist and longtime supporter of GW. Her skin had an unhealthy, pouchy pallor; extending an uncertain hand, she had the air of a dreamer deploying remembered charms. 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. Gwendolyn Cafritz, a leading Washington hostess, died of cancer Tuesday at her home in the capital. 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. 5.8K. 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. For him, philanthropy required partnerships that are broad, diverse, and extensive. Rachel was a daughter of the late Abraham and Chierney Yarowsky. Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a33c63ad631098ddb002d9da023fc09f" );document.getElementById("gab125c3ec").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The George Washington University community is remembering the life of Calvin Cafritz, a businessman, philanthropist and longtime supporter of GW. Gradually, as Gwendolyn took command of it, its character changed. He too has denied the sons' allegations in his formal answer to their complaint. His mother, Gwendolyn, one of Washington's leading hostesses in the post-World War II years, was President of the Foundation from 1964 to 1988. 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. In 2000, under Mr. Cafritz' leadership, the foundation's board established the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Awards for Distinguished DC Government Employees, an annual program designed to recognize and reward outstanding performance and exemplary service by locally based federal employees. Irene Bloch, as she is called, is a wealthy department store owner's wife who mounts a relentless campaign for acceptance in Washington society. "Very sort of philosophic, sort of honorable." 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 often conveyed his conviction that believing in a cause obligated one to support it financially. Cafritz died in 1964 of a heart attack. At the least, then, Gwendolyn's will disposes of more than $140 million. 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. None of the Cafritz sons can be said to need the money that is at stake. 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. "He got up at 5 or 5:30, and he wanted to show me what a hard-working man he was.". If she gave them an order, they took it lightly, because she liked to drink. 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. Where he was meat and potatoes, earnest frugality, civic pride, she was flashing dark beauty, mercurial moods and social ambition. There is, for example, the very palpable legacy of real estate developed by Morris Cafritz, including several lots and office buildings downtown. . "She felt that was the end, when she couldn't function socially.". We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate developer Morris Cafritz, died last week at the age of 91. Authorize the publication of the original written obituary with the accompanying photo. Since 1989, Cafritz led the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, a charitable organization named for his parents. "For over 30 years the Cafritz Foundation has supported The Textile Museum, especially as a prominent proponent of the museums move to the George Washington University,"said John Wetenhall, director of the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. The foundation, which Calvin led for over 30 years (after his mother Gwendolyn died in 1988), focuses on programs in the arts and humanities. Today he shares office space and support staff with Conrad's growing interests, but for the most part pursues his own deals. 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. Conrad's strategy has been diversity. 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. Age: 91 years old Also known as: Mr Calvin Cafritz, Calvin Cafritz View Full Report Mobile number ADS View Current Number Landline number (202) 223-3100 Email addresses ccafritz@cafritzfoundation.org Relatives Calvin Cafritz Jane Cafritz Current address 1642 29th St NW, Washington, DC, 20007-2901 See more results for Calvin Cafritz If youre in charge of handling the affairs for a recently deceased loved one, this guide offers a helpful checklist. A memorial service will be held at a later date. . 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. Here, beyond the threshold, was the stunning circular entrance hall, dramatic enough to live up to the woman who once swept down the stairs to greet her guests. 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. Once it was built, he wasn't interested in it.". David Kessler's top 4 tips for dealing with holiday grief. Cafritz was a native and longtime resident of Washington, DC. 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. His father, one of Washington's leading commercial and residential builders from the early 1920's to the 1960's, distinguished himself as an outstanding civic leader known for generosity. Mr. 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. You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or plant a tree in memory of Calvin Cafritz. In 1971, Mr. Cafritz resigned to form Calvin Cafritz Enterprises, with investments in aviation, communications, and Washington area real estate.

. He served in these roles until 2022, when Jane Lipton Cafritz, his wife, was elected Board Chair and President and CEO. 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. (91 years old). All of their lives, the Cafritz boys have been aware of their status as the sons of Morris and Gwendolyn. ", Her drinking got out of control, he agrees, shortly after Morris Cafritz's sudden death of a heart attack in 1964. There are also real estate assets at Arlingtons 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, which is the former home of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He was an excellent listener and always got both the big picture and important details by asking insightful questions. Cafritz is survived by Jane, his third wife, who is a lawyer in the area. Except for minor bequests to former employees and other family members, she also left to the foundation all of the property she owned outright. . There he built the massive River House apartments; his estate eventually sold most of the land for others to develop. He was 91. It is easy to imagine that for a son of Morris Cafritz, watching great deals go unmade is a kind of hell. 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. Her gown, as in the past, was spectacularly formal: folds of purple satin sweeping to her ankles beneath a fitted bodice. She could no longer make an entrance, of course. Your email address will not be published. What do Conrad and Carter Cafritz hope to gain from an arduous legal proceeding that already involves at least 12 law firms and threatens to stretch on for years? For better or worse, he is the son who has tried to live out both their ambitions -- to build on a scale that will make an impact on the city, and to develop a persona that will make him an actor in the capital. ON JUNE 10, 1986, GWENDOLYN D. CAFRITZ GAVE HER LAST PARTY. He was 91 at the time he died. 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. Washington, DC 20006. Each is in his second marriage; each is in some way involved in the arts. "Maybe we try a little harder because our family name is well-known," he told a reporter in 1965. The house was not so much well-tended as beautifully preserved, arrested in time; and the party duplicated the past in every anachronistic detail. 'Their Financial Needs Are Adequately Provided For'. 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 Martin Atlas, she left $50,000 and a Chagall painting. Mr. Cafritz' grace, elegance, discernment, desire for excellence, and commitment to making the most of every day and every situation will continue to inspire and motivate all who knew and loved him. Send simple, comforting meals with Home Chef. We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. Your email address will not be published. "He's always very, very protective of the Cafritz name, as if it were his own. 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. 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. All rights reserved. Echovita offers a solidarity program that gives back the funds generated to families. Then there is the charitable legacy. She also made bequests of $100,000 each to 10 of her 13 grandchildren -- excluding the children Conrad adopted, to whom he has remained a committed father. The Cromwell, Aberdeen, Fernbrook, Rosedale, Isleworth, Traymore and Zellwood are in sorry shape today, but still stand as a modest monument to the name C-A-F-R-I-T-Z. Would you like to offer Calvin Cafritzs loved ones a condolence message? That's why her final victory rather delighted me. 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. 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,. Beginning with single-family houses, moving on to apartment houses and office buildings, he managed to dodge the Depression and was well positioned to preside over the city's transforming boom during and after World War II (see box, Page 20). Some basic help and starters when you have to write a tribute to someone you love. . Of the three Cafritz sons, says restaurateur Herb White, "Conrad seems to be the one who has something to prove to himself.". He's truly out to make a big impact on the city, I think. 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. 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. 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. All are multimillionaires, and Conrad Cafritz, by most accounts the prime instigator of the lawsuit, has spun his inheritance from his father into a vast personal fortune of at minimum $100 million. (His first wife, Jennifer, has since married Laughlin Phillips, son of Duncan and Marjorie Phillips and president of the Phillips Collection.). The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the charitable organization Calvin Cafritz had led since 1989, confirmed his passing and provided a copy of his obituary, which didnt disclose cause of death. Senator Barry Goldwater . Ridgewell's had produced, out of retirement, the same waiter who had announced the guests eight years before. Her hair was still a lacquered black, heavily dressed as always at the back of her head. Certainly it is Conrad who seems to embody, in one slight frame, the polarities of his parents' lives and personalities. 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. In 1904, with a $1,400 loan from his father, he started out running a coal yard at Fourth and K streets NW, then a saloon near Fourth and O.