In the process, he amassed one of the first great fortunes to be carved out of Washington itself. He was an excellent listener and always got both the big picture and important details by asking insightful questions. But Carter and Conrad Cafritz are not named in their mother's will. "The decanter always had to be full," Dowling says. "Decedent's condition deteriorated after the death of her husband in 1964 and grew worse in the following years. Read more on bizjournals.com. He too has denied the sons' allegations in his formal answer to their complaint. (91 years old). Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate developer Morris Cafritz, died last week at the age of 91. She set aside bequests for two nephews ($35,000 each); a former company employee, Dorothy Casey ($10,000); and four former servants (two bequests of $50,000 and two of $25,000). And by 1970, arts and humanities took the largest share of the funding. 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.". Cafritz died in 1964 of a heart attack. 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. 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 mission of the foundation is improving the quality of life for all Washington, D.C., metropolitan-area residents, Boerstling said. He was 91 at the time he died. As time went on, she lost complete control, and she had to drink more. 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. The foundation, which Calvin led for over 30 years (after his mother Gwendolyn died in 1988), focuses on programs in the arts and humanities. If you experience a barrier that affects your ability to access content on this page, let us know via the. A unique and lasting tribute for a loved one. They charge in their suit that Rogers and Atlas influenced her to leave all the property she controlled to the foundation. "She wanted something, and she put up with a lot of {expletive}, and she got it. He was 91. There are hints too that he has social ambitions on Gwendolyn's scale, if not exactly of her type. By the time of her death, however, Calvin was still the son closest to his mother. But she had a disconcertingly self-serious way of advertising it. CAFRITZ James Edward Cafritz James Edward Cafritz of Bethesda, MD, passed away on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, at the age of 90. 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. And {Gwendolyn} was just considered comical, and there were a lot of jokes about her. But Gwendolyn sometimes took pains to tell friends that she herself was not Jewish. To slip out of the speedy traffic on Foxhall Road into the half-circle driveway was to slip back in time. . There were of course the grand exceptions like the Warburgs, and Walter Lippmann, and Arthur Krock . 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. It is hard not to wonder what the effect might have been of hearing Gwendolyn Cafritz's will read for the first time. Of the three sons, Calvin seems to have had the best relationship with his mother. Jane Lipton Cafritz was elected in the second half of 2022 to succeed her husband as the foundations president and CEO. That task was left to her closest relatives. We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. But it was a heady enough wine to call out 300 guests, and the ghosts of many more who had preceded them. He was the eldest son of real estate titan Morris Cafritz and his wife Gwendolyn. 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. 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. And even then, there was always fussing. 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 just wanted to build, build, build, build!" 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. But it has that air of a property just turning past ripeness, toward seed. Calvin H. Frazier (February 16, 1915 - September 23, 1972) was an American Detroit blues and country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. The judge's decision, though in favor of Conrad and Carter Cafritz, is of little. 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. 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.. They're more like the French salons.". She appears every week on the WETA-TV arts show "Around Town." 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. He may sometimes have yearned for recognition: One night, after one of the glamorous dinners, he drew a friend of Gwendolyn's away from the dining room and into the kitchen. Her two younger sons have also filed a separate petition that pursues only the marital trust. (202) 338-4833, Georgetown Media Group. The George Washington University community is remembering the life of Calvin Cafritz, a businessman, philanthropist and longtime supporter of GW. 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. According to Susan Boerstling, GWs assistant vice president for corporate and foundation relations, the partnership of the Cafritz Foundation with GW is unique in terms of other universities in the area. The annual Cafritz Awards Gala has been held on campus for many years, Boerstling noted, representing a partnership between the university, the foundation and the Office of the D.C. Mayor. There are also real estate assets at Arlingtons 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, which is the former home of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. "Lots of times she could drink and she knew exactly what she was doing. With that philosophy he built a substantial reputation for philanthropy. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Calvin Cafritz to show support. Funeral arrangement under the care ofSAGEL BLOOMFIELD DANZANSKY GOLDBERG FUNERAL CARE INC. ", Interviews suggest the sons will not lack for evidence to support their argument. He is also survived by his brother Conrad Cafritz, chairman and CEO of Cafritz Interests, a real estate company. 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. ", Today, he still combats a version of that assumption, pithily summed up by one detractor in this way: "You don't have to be Albert Einstein to take money and make additional money in real estate." Senator Barry Goldwater . In July 1993, he was elected President and CEO of the Foundation and in the last six months became Chairman Emeritus. 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. In the '50s, Cafritz had an early conviction that the future direction of downtown Washington was along the K Street corridor, and before his death in 1964 he built a dozen buildings in the "new" downtown, mostly on K and I streets NW. Carter Cafritz, who sits on the board of WETA, began his career in partnership with Conrad, building apartments and town houses in and around the city. Recommend Calvin's obituary to your friends. ", The Cafritzes slept in separate bedrooms, Morris rising at dawn to get to the office. Implicitly, Carter and Conrad Cafritz are also challenging her designation of Calvin, the eldest, as the only son who will have a future role in running the foundation, which already controls assets of more than $220 million. He died on Thursday, Jan. 12, at age 91. All three stayed in Washington to work at some variation of their father's trade. 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. 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 . 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. Papers filed in court by his sons' lawyers say he was born in 1888; his gravestone says 1890, which would have made him only 14 when he started his business career. 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. All rights reserved. In 2001, the Cafritz Foundation gave $1 million toward the Cafritz Conference Center in the University Student Center. It was an invitation to stroll around the house and remember: When Gwen Cafritz, with her 19-inch waist and Balmain gowns, her raven hair and regal air, had won constant publicity for her parties -- 22 to dinner, with toasts over champagne, and enormous receptions like this one each spring and fall. Required fields are marked *. Rogers had served as her personal attorney since her husband, Washington real estate magnate Morris Cafritz, died in 1964. "I just thought she maybe had had enough of running around, and she was maybe going to stay in a while. To Martin Atlas, she left $50,000 and a Chagall painting. None of the Cafritz sons can be said to need the money that is at stake. No one needed to be told that this was Gwendolyn Cafritz's last hurrah. Conrad's strange, and doesn't mind people thinking that he's strange; he kind of encourages it.". 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. Then there is the foundation itself, with its powerful endowment for the city. 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. "That what she wanted was pointless is not for us to judge.". He was 91. That's why her final victory rather delighted me. Home These two, according to the complaint by Carter and Conrad Cafritz, "exerted undue influence" in Gwendolyn's decision to leave her entire estate to the foundation, of which they are both trustees. [2] He is buried in the Washington Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, Washington, D.C. Philanthropy [ edit] Washington, DC 20006. "She felt that was the end, when she couldn't function socially.". 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. 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. One quarter to be divided among his sons, in trusts they would inherit outright at age 35. Marvin Katz was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Dr. Donald LaVerne Katz and Lila Maxine Katz on December 12, 1935. 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. "He got up at 5 or 5:30, and he wanted to show me what a hard-working man he was.". Published by The Washington Post on Jan. 22, 2023. a medically-induced . There is, for example, the very palpable legacy of real estate developed by Morris Cafritz, including several lots and office buildings downtown. But the fourth square in the plot remains empty; Gwendolyn Cafritz was memorialized in a Presbyterian church and had herself buried far north in Rockville's Parklawn Cemetery, among strangers.
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