James Edward Cafritz <p>James Edward Cafritz of Bethesda, MD, passed away on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, at the age of 90. They're not a map to follow, but simply a description of what people commonly feel. One interrogatory demands that Riggs National Bank, which was Gwendolyn's bank, "identify all individuals or facilities that, from 1954 until Gwendolyn Cafritz' death, provided to Gwendolyn Cafritz any care, advice, counseling, or treatment relating to her consumption of alcohol . 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. 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. Conrad is angrily aware, say friends, that his success will always be explained away. Devoted father to Laurence (Sherri) Cafritz and Jodi (Mark Bronsky) Cafritz; cherished grandfather to Daniel, Ryan, Jeremy, Jack and Mick; beloved friend of first wife Sandie Cafritz; loving brother to the late William (Buffy) Cafritz; treasured uncle to Sandy (Helen . 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. "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. He was 91 at the time he died. 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. In high school, for example, Conrad stood out even among his privileged classmates at St. Albans. 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. Cafritzs 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, his obituary reads. Each is in his second marriage; each is in some way involved in the arts. 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? Chances are, many Washingtonians might not even realize how much real estate the Cafritz family is responsible for in the area. 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. Was believed to be 102. Special Neighborhood Hang Out: Say Cheese! Yet he uncomplainingly supported all of Gwendolyn's efforts, and was said to adore his colorful bride. 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. 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. 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. And other times she didn't. Write your message of sympathy today. They keep china and glassware sufficient to serve hundreds. 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. Washington, DC 20006. 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. 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. Mr. There is no photo or video of Calvin Cafritz.Be the first to share a memory to pay tribute. 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. January 27, 2023. Calvin's younger brothers, Conrad and Carter, are behind-the- scenes players in many business and charitable ventures players. Your email address will not be published. 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. Baron and Baroness Constantine Stackelberg . The entire time, he fought with gloves off, publicly charging his rivals with bad faith. (Conrad and Peggy were both involved in Barry's first election campaign, and Peggy is the godmother of Barry's son, Christopher.) 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. Ymelda Dixon, who covered many of her parties for the Evening Star, recalls, "They were great parties, because she had the means and the imagination. Irene Bloch, as she is called, is a wealthy department store owner's wife who mounts a relentless campaign for acceptance in Washington society. 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. Calvin Cafritz, their eldest son, became Board Chairman in 1989 and in 1993, he was elected President and CEO of the Foundation. He was "greatly respected and liked, even in an antisemitic society," recalls Dixon. She was a member of Main Street Church of Christ in Monticello, AR. At the time the lawsuit was filed, family sources told The Washington Post that the marital trust was worth $84 million. He was 91. You have funeral questions, we have answers. 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. 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. Her skin had an unhealthy, pouchy pallor; extending an uncertain hand, she had the air of a dreamer deploying remembered charms. She was multilingual and had studied art history at the University of Budapest. Published by The Washington Post on Jan. 22, 2023. "The boys used to make a joke of their mother. 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. Funeral arrangement under the care ofSAGEL BLOOMFIELD DANZANSKY GOLDBERG FUNERAL CARE INC. "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. "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. All three had become local real estate developers, successful, if less spectacular, emulators of their father. The Cafritz Foundation is also a longtime supporter of GWs Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service. 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. "I think he went along," says a longtime business associate, Irwin Altman. But he believes her drinking was a source of family discord. "Conrad is really an anomaly," says lawyer and real estate developer Donald Brown. "Jews in general just didn't figure. 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. 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. "Carter, he always did what the other two did," says Casey. His commitment to causes and institutions extended beyond writing checks to giving time and energy. ", While she cultivated the mighty, Morris looked closer to home, helping to found the Washington Community Chest, becoming an activist in local Jewish groups. . including, but not limited to, any facilities located in Washington, D.C.; Palm Beach, Florida; or Monte Carlo, Monaco." Cafritz is survived by Jane, his third wife, who is a lawyer in the area. Conrad and Carter Cafritz are pursuing this stake in two ways: One is a lawsuit naming all her beneficiaries and her executors -- William P. Rogers, Martin Atlas and Riggs National Bank. recalls Raymond Carter, a former vice president of the Cafritz Co. "He always had a new job going. 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. 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. "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. Cafritz exemplified what it means to be an inspirational leader and a great human being, said Pyatybratova. 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. The most famous of these was the Cafritz Building, at 1625 I; ballyhooed in 1950 as the first "park-at-your-desk" building, it had ramps rising 10 stories at the building's core. . Where he was meat and potatoes, earnest frugality, civic pride, she was flashing dark beauty, mercurial moods and social ambition. He was 91. The trust was established at the death of Morris Cafritz in June 1964 in the interests of saving estate taxes. 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 . Its annual reports list a fairly traditional, staid set of beneficiaries, and its grants are studied by an advisory board heavily weighted toward the kind of high-profile, high-society arts philanthropy that Gwendolyn favored: Among the members are National Gallery of Art Director J. Carter Brown, retired Smithsonian secretary S. Dillon Ripley and retired librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin, as well Carolyn Deaver, wife of former White House deputy chief of staff Michael K. Deaver, and a social friend of Gwendolyn's, Mrs. Tazewell Shepard. Then, in 1988, came the announcement that Conrad Cafritz, with Japanese partners, had bought Washington Harbour, the glitzy development below K Street in Georgetown that had been troubled from its opening; the original developer of Washington Harbour was Western. 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. 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. Small grants went to 15 more Jewish charities, and the rest to such local charities as boys clubs and hospital funds. . In July 1993, he was elected President and CEO of the Foundation and in the last six months became Chairman Emeritus. 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. There are no events at this time. Cafritz died in 1964 of a heart attack. 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. Influence over the city's future -- no doubt. For the sons of Gwendolyn Cafritz, to accept her last will and testament would be to allow her, in more than one sense, the last word. But it was hard to remember, here, the titanic social ambition that had made her what she was. She was born January 30, 1936 in Kennett, MO to the late David Richard Roberts and Betty Burbank Roberts. A unique and lasting tribute for a loved one. Operating under his own banner, Calvin Cafritz Enterprises, he has built both residential and commercial buildings in D.C. and Virginia. 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. Says a friend, "He thinks they're a lot of fuddy-duddies living in the 17th century." (202) 338-4833, Georgetown Media Group. Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate developer Morris Cafritz, died last week at the age of 91. He has interests too in a booming brokerage firm he helped bankroll, and in a Midwestern shopping-center conglomerate. He left it as follows: Half to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. The George Washington University community is remembering the life of Calvin Cafritz, a businessman, philanthropist and longtime supporter of GW. "Calvin is a very sweet, very nice person," says D.C. lawyer Max N. Berry. Gwendolyn Cafritz died of cancer last November. 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. Because Gwendolyn's estate has not been probated, its value is hard to establish. He warmly greeted staff and fellow philanthropist alike, making no distinction between people. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Calvin Cafritz to show support. 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. January 12, 2023 Late last year, Calvins wife Jane was elected to succeed her husband as the foundations president and CEO and he was named chairman emeritus. The best poems for funerals, memorial services., and cards. 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.". The importance of saying "I love you" during COVID-19, Effective ways of dealing with the grieving process, Solutions to show your sympathy safely during the Covid-19 pandemic, SAGEL BLOOMFIELD DANZANSKY GOLDBERG FUNERAL CARE INC. Thanks to the support of the Cafritz Foundation for the last 25 years, CEPL has supported organizational transformation across the public sector in the city. 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. In addition to his loving family, he leaves behind a long-time member of the family household, Lilian Punzalan, and countless admiring friends. But almost no one noticed what seemed apparent to Gore Vidal, in brief glimpses of her during the '60s: "Toward the end {of the decade}, she was always drunk whenever I saw her. 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. Mr. Cafritz was married previously two times; his first wife was Enid Cafritz and his second wife was Joyce Smith. 'Their Financial Needs Are Adequately Provided For'. 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. The complaint further asserts that "when Decedent allegedly executed the purported Will and Codicil that have been offered for probate herein, Decedent lacked a sound and disposing mind and was not capable of executing a valid deed or contract. He is a leading supporter of the Global India Fund, and the Ukapav Indian-American Scholarship Foundation. In 2001, the Cafritz Foundation gave $1 million toward the Cafritz Conference Center in the University Student Center. 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 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. ", The Cafritzes slept in separate bedrooms, Morris rising at dawn to get to the office. 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. D.C. developer, businessman and philanthropist Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate icon Morris Cafritz and his wife Gwendolyn, died . 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. 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. All of their lives, the Cafritz boys have been aware of their status as the sons of Morris and Gwendolyn. "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. He never tired of committing himself to this mission, which only grew bigger with time. And {Gwendolyn} was just considered comical, and there were a lot of jokes about her. His father, Morris, established one of the Washington region's leading philanthropic entities, the Morris and . ", 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. It is a secretive organization: The foundation would answer no questions for this article. The holdings in downtown Washington include buildings in the 1700 and 1800 blocks of K Street and a parking lot at 12th and K; buildings in the 1300 and 1600 blocks of L Street; property in the 1600, 1700 and 1800 blocks of I Street. He was 91. 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. Finally, there is the legacy contained in any will: The power to reward or to punish the living, to define or rearrange the narrative of a family's history. 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 no events scheduled. To Edward R. Murrow, in a 1956 interview, she said that to speak of Washington cocktail parties was "unfair to Washington. 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 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. 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. Her statements in the press, even the adoring press of yore, suggest at the least a daunting mother. Senator Barry Goldwater . An old friend remembers a Fourth of July party at which one or more of the boys stood in a window above the path that led indoors from the pool to the cocktail area, throwing firecrackers down onto the guests. There are also real estate assets at Arlingtons 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, which is the former home of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 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. "She wanted something, and she put up with a lot of {expletive}, and she got it. Cafritz was a native and longtime resident of Washington, DC. 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. By the time of her death, however, Calvin was still the son closest to his mother. There are, superficially, great similarities among the three brothers, who all share their mother's dark coloring. Receive obituaries from the city or cities of your choice. 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 . "He got up at 5 or 5:30, and he wanted to show me what a hard-working man he was.". "He just wanted to build, build, build, build!" And Gwendolyn's estate is not, in the end, the only -- or even the main thing -- at stake. To plant trees in memory, please visit the. There is, for example, the very palpable legacy of real estate developed by Morris Cafritz, including several lots and office buildings downtown. Authorize the publication of the original written obituary with the accompanying photo. 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. Required fields are marked *. 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. "I've just bought 100 acres of downtown Washington," he was fond of saying. Once grown, the sons established limited, perfunctory contacts with their mother. In 1929 he also built the since-demolished Ambassador Hotel, at 14th and K streets NW, where he and his family lived until 1938. When he died, his estate was the largest ever probated in the District of Columbia. He was the eldest son of real estate titan Morris Cafritz and his wife Gwendolyn. 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. "She was a classic case," summarizes Vidal. He was 91 years of age. But he's much different from his father, in a lot of ways. The mission of the foundation is improving the quality of life for all Washington, D.C., metropolitan-area residents, Boerstling said. Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz were oil and water, a marriage forged out of surprisingly dissonant elements. But in the end, her siege of Washington society outlasted most of those limits. 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. Some basic help and starters when you have to write a tribute to someone you love. That's what we call a success story. As time went on, she lost complete control, and she had to drink more. Then there is the charitable legacy. 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 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. Except for minor bequests to former employees and other family members, she also left to the foundation all of the property she owned outright. 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. What do the younger sons of the celebrated Washington hostess hope to gain by waging legal war over their mother's will? Certainly it is Conrad who seems to embody, in one slight frame, the polarities of his parents' lives and personalities. Then there is the foundation itself, with its powerful endowment for the city. Perhaps as a result, he works hard, with much of Morris's old drive. She retained the right to will awaythe remaining three-quarters, or $63 million, which sheleft to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate developer Morris Cafritz, died last week at the age of 91. 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. Recommend Calvin's obituary to your friends. All rights reserved. The Meyer Foundation is sad to learn of the passing of Calvin Cafritz, a Washington-area developer and one of the region's leading philanthropists. The Cafritz Foundation is also responsible for developing Art Place at Fort Totten, a huge mixed-use project in the Northeast D.C. area. ON JUNE 10, 1986, GWENDOLYN D. CAFRITZ GAVE HER LAST PARTY. Of the three sons, Calvin seems to have had the best relationship with his mother. He's truly out to make a big impact on the city, I think. With such a ruling, the trust would pass to the three sons, as outlined in Morris's will. That task was left to her closest relatives.

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