Special Neighborhood Hang Out: Say Cheese! Calvin, 58, who finds himself a defendant in this lawsuit, is usually described as gentlemanly, methodical and reserved. Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz were oil and water, a marriage forged out of surprisingly dissonant elements. He was "greatly respected and liked, even in an antisemitic society," recalls Dixon. 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. There are no events at this time. But its true targets are two longtime advisers who are executors of her estate: Martin Atlas, for decades the closest business associate of both Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz, and William P. Rogers, the former attorney general and secretary of state who was Gwendolyn's personal attorney. 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. 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. We welcome you to provide your thoughts and memories on our Tribute Wall. Her statements in the press, even the adoring press of yore, suggest at the least a daunting mother. "There were moments when you wanted to go around and have everybody wear not just a name tag, but a bio,"says their good friend Margaret Lenzner. Money -- to be sure. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Calvin Cafritz began his career with Cafritz Construction in 1947, pausing briefly to attend college and serve in the military. He was 91 years of age. Calvin Cafritz, D.C. developer and head of the Cafritz Foundation, dies at 91. bizjournals.com - Michael Neibauer 20h. She retained the right to will awaythe remaining three-quarters, or $63 million, which sheleft to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. 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. He's truly out to make a big impact on the city, I think. "Getting along with her," says one developer who knows the family, "was something none of them ever mastered. 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. 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." From the others he solicited their names, bending to murmur prompts into the ear of the star. . 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. What do the younger sons of the celebrated Washington hostess hope to gain by waging legal war over their mother's will? For one thing, he has a dark, avowedly cynical sense of humor. 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. 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. ", 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." To one interviewer she said that art was "the theme, you might say" of her life, "as in a Wagnerian opera." She has pressured the Smithsonian to increase the number of minorities in high-ranking positions and has been arrested outside the South African Embassy as a leader of Mother's Day protests there. Calvin Cafritz Rockville, Maryland March 29, 1931 - January 12, 2023 Share Obituary: Tribute Wall Obituary & Events Share a memory Send Flowers Obituary An obituary is not available at this time for Calvin Cafritz. 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. The holdings also include a major share of the two Universal buildings at Connecticut and Florida avenues NW, and shares of the massive River House apartment buildings in Pentagon City. What kind of arrangement is appropriate, where should you send it, and when should you send an alternative? "Maybe we try a little harder because our family name is well-known," he told a reporter in 1965. All rights reserved. Since 1989, Cafritz led the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, a charitable organization named for his parents. For another, he is said to alternate in seconds between a manic intensity and a mumbling diffidence. January 27, 2023. 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. Cafritzs encouragement has particularly strengthened the Washington-area communitys appreciation of textiles as a vital form of artistic expression and global cultural heritage.". ", Conrad Cafritz is, in a word fondly used by friends, weird. Mr. Cafritz said that the awards are designed to "shine a light on the contributions of extraordinary government employees. But he believes her drinking was a source of family discord. 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. sales@governmentexecutiveconsultingservices.com, Copyright 2022 Government Executive Consulting Services. 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.". 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. Certainly it is Conrad who seems to embody, in one slight frame, the polarities of his parents' lives and personalities. Conrad is angrily aware, say friends, that his success will always be explained away. 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. 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. "I know Atlas hates publicity like poison," says Raymond Carter, a former Cafritz Co. vice president. 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. In the 21st century, it's not just urns and gravestones anymore. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a contribution to a charity of your choice. "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. 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. ", Gwendolyn reportedly raised her children according to the dictates of her European background -- under the aegis of servants, to be seen and not heard. Marvin LaVerne Katz, 83, of Dallas, Texas, passed away on November 22, 2019 in Dallas. But maybe they just don't want Gwen Cafritz to have the last word. 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.
Calvin Cafritz Obituary (1931 - 2023) | Rockville, Maryland The suit was filed by the middle and youngest Cafritz sons, Carter, 53, and Conrad, 51. 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 was 91. When the Duke and Duchess of Windsor came and danced downstairs in "the Club," with the dance floor lighted from below. 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. "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. 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. Her hair was still a lacquered black, heavily dressed as always at the back of her head. 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. But she had a disconcertingly self-serious way of advertising it. He also has three children, five grandchildren and three stepchildren. Expand the Memories and Condolences form. 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.
The 2019 Philanthropic 50 - Washington Life Magazine If you could walk around to the back, you might look out at the famous view; and you might almost see as far as Southeast D.C., where Morris lies with his in-laws, still waiting.
Calvin Fritz Obituary (1952 - 2021) - Legacy Remembers 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. Morris had one vision, and Gwendolyn another; whoever now gains control might offer still a third. Your email address will not be published. But Gwendolyn sometimes took pains to tell friends that she herself was not Jewish. The Cafritz Foundation is also responsible for developing Art Place at Fort Totten, a huge mixed-use project in the Northeast D.C. area. "Conrad is really an anomaly," says lawyer and real estate developer Donald Brown. Rachel was a daughter of the late Abraham and Chierney Yarowsky. Then there is the charitable legacy. In addition, there are at least 10 apartment buildings in D.C. Conrad, say friends, has watched in frustration as downtown Washington boomed and the foundation failed to take maximum advantage of its holdings.
January 2023 - Page 189 - obituaries death Ways to honor Calvin Cafritz's life and legacy. He resigned seven years later to form Cafritz Enterprises. 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 think he went along," says a longtime business associate, Irwin Altman. That's why her final victory rather delighted me. And even then, there was always fussing. To those who thronged to the parties, the children were rarely in evidence. 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. Atlas too declined to comment, but he issued a statement when the suit was filed saying that he had no role in drafting the will, and no advance knowledge of its contents. "Carter, he always did what the other two did," says Casey. He was preceded in death by his brother Carter Cafritz. 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. He was 91 at the time he died. Michael J. Dowling, who became the Cafritzes' butler in the early '60s, describes a tragically common decline. 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. 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. Home ", According to friends, her confidence was badly shaken when she was robbed at home in 1969 by gunmen who bound and beat her, stealing most of the spectacular jewelry Morris had given her. 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. 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.
Calvin Cafritz - Rockville, Maryland , Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky There is no photo or video of Calvin Cafritz.Be the first to share a memory to pay tribute. He left it as follows: Half to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation.