Cafritz's passing was confirmed by the charitable organization named after Morris and his wife, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Calvin Cafritz, developer and head of the Cafritz Foundation, dies As you draw close to the famous burgundy front door, with its surrounding marble, you can see that the paint is cracking and fading to pink; and greenish stains from metal window fixtures are starting to weep down the white brick walls. Betty Lou Roberts Colvin, age 84 of Warren, AR passed away November 5, 2020 at Chapel Woods Nursing Home in Warren, AR. 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 was 91. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. About - The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation "I make no other provision in this will for the benefit of my children," it states, "as their financial needs are adequately provided for" by the old agreement giving them $7 million each. Calvin Cafritz, D.C. developer and head of the Cafritz Foundation, dies Morris grew up working in the store, stalking the Maine Avenue wharf for the freshest fish sold there and learning to love the adolescent city he saw around him. The mission of the foundation is improving the quality of life for all Washington, D.C., metropolitan-area residents, Boerstling said. A memorial service will be held at a later date. 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. Information and advice to help you cope with the death of someone important to you. The "Cafritz" in the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program. 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. It charges that Rogers and Atlas "exerted undue influence" on her decision to leave all her money to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, and that Gwendolyn herself "lacked testamentary capacity," meaning that she was incapable of writing her will. He was 91. 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.. "He just wanted to build, build, build, build!" "She was not, as they say, invited anywhere at the beginning," recalls Gore Vidal, whose novel Washington, D.C. includes a character "suggested," he says, by Gwendolyn Cafritz. ", Interviews suggest the sons will not lack for evidence to support their argument. Nor, apparently, is it for us to judge what her sons now want from a D.C. Superior Court judge: All three declined to beinterviewed. As he stood by her chair, he could name at a glance quite a few of the guests -- Chief Justice and Mrs. Warren Burger . Her statements in the press, even the adoring press of yore, suggest at the least a daunting mother. 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. The house on Foxhall Road, completed in 1938, was explicitly designed to fulfill that ambition. 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. 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. ", High culture was one of her chosen routes to acceptance. Except for minor bequests to former employees and other family members, she also left to the foundation all of the property she owned outright. When the Duke and Duchess of Windsor came and danced downstairs in "the Club," with the dance floor lighted from below. 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. Home The same plain white damask draped the table, with plain white damask napkins tied around settings of her heavy Georg Jensen flatware. The suit was filed by the middle and youngest Cafritz sons, Carter, 53, and Conrad, 51. He has assembled a group of about 14 local hotels, including the Georgetown Inn and One Washington Circle. 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. The house was not so much well-tended as beautifully preserved, arrested in time; and the party duplicated the past in every anachronistic detail. But maybe they just don't want Gwen Cafritz to have the last word. January 2023 - Page 189 - obituaries death 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? He often conveyed his conviction that believing in a cause obligated one to support it financially. ", She gave only two parties in the last 15 years of her life -- one in 1978, her first in five years, and the final party in 1986. 2017-2023 Tribute Archive. "The boys used to make a joke of their mother. "Getting along with her," says one developer who knows the family, "was something none of them ever mastered. Recognizably brothers, the youngest of them nearing his fifties, they were a striking presence at the party. 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. He was 91 years of age. Calvin Cafritz Rockville, Maryland March 29, 1931 - January 12, 2023 Share Obituary: Tribute Wall Obituary & Events Share a memory Send Flowers Share a memory of Calvin Cafritz. 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. a medically-induced . Today, Calvin is foundation chairman. In Memoriam: Calvin Cafritz. 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). A unique and lasting tribute for a loved one. In real estate, especially within the constricting borders of D.C., power isn't limited to those who own the land; controlling the land can be almost as good. ", 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. "That what she wanted was pointless is not for us to judge.". Marvin Katz Obituary - Richardson, TX - Dignity Memorial Today he shares office space and support staff with Conrad's growing interests, but for the most part pursues his own deals. . "Those were her orders: The Scotch should never be let go beneath the neck of the decanter. 1050 30th St. NW She was multilingual and had studied art history at the University of Budapest. 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. Real estate was more than mortgages and refi nancing in the Cafritzian heyday; it was empire building . Gwendolyn Cafritz died of cancer last November. 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. 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. Cafritz was a tireless promoter of the city. When she drafted her third and last will in 1981, she wrote a final clause that reads almost like an afterthought, but resounds in the lawsuit now underway: "It is my wish that our descendents {sic} shall maintain an interest in the affairs of THE MORRIS AND GWENDOLYN CAFRITZ FOUNDATION and its philanthropic purposes and I desire that, following my death, CALVIN CAFRITZ be elected to serve on the board of the Foundation.". "He's part of a legendary family, and he's the only one who seems interested in keeping up the legend," says one friend. Calvin Cafritz obituary - fskhub.com His class yearbook is littered with references to his family's money; in a list at the back of "most likely" candidates, the last two entries read, "Most Likely to Succeed: Johnson, Clague," and "Doesn't Have To: Cafritz. Once it was built, he wasn't interested in it.". But she had a disconcertingly self-serious way of advertising it. 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. You have funeral questions, we have answers. Morris Cafritz is remembered more for the quantity than for the aesthetic quality of his works. 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.". 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. Calvin Frazier - Wikipedia "I just thought she maybe had had enough of running around, and she was maybe going to stay in a while. 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,. They keep china and glassware sufficient to serve hundreds. 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. He left it as follows: Half to the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. 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. 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. There are, superficially, great similarities among the three brothers, who all share their mother's dark coloring. Calvin Fritz Obituary (1952 - 2021) - Legacy Remembers Rogers had served as her personal attorney since her husband, Washington real estate magnate Morris Cafritz, died in 1964. Washington, DC 20006. "I know Atlas hates publicity like poison," says Raymond Carter, a former Cafritz Co. vice president. Calvin Cafritz Obituary (1931 - 2023) - Washington, DC - The Washington Kateryna Pyatybratova directs the centers Cafritz Awards program. Morris had one vision, and Gwendolyn another; whoever now gains control might offer still a third. "Watch Washington Grow to One Million," he urged in newspaper ads of the '40s, a slogan he changed to "Watch Washington Grow to Two Million" after the 1950 census counted more than 1.4 million in the metropolitan area. 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. And other times she didn't. This suit asks the court to overturn her will, after which, under D.C. law, her property would be divided among her sons. At the least, then, Gwendolyn's will disposes of more than $140 million. (202) 338-4833, Georgetown Media Group. At the time the lawsuit was filed, family sources told The Washington Post that the marital trust was worth $84 million. There are no events scheduled. Operating under his own banner, Calvin Cafritz Enterprises, he has built both residential and commercial buildings in D.C. and Virginia. 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. None of the Cafritz sons can be said to need the money that is at stake. 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. 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. In the '70s she became a near-recluse. He too has denied the sons' allegations in his formal answer to their complaint. Calvin Cafritz Obituary (1931 - 2023) | Rockville, Maryland 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. Some observers speculate that Conrad, hardheaded real estate man that he is, simply wants some say in the disposition of the real estate owned -- in many cases, co-owned -- by the foundation and Gwendolyn's estate. 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. 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.". "She was good to me, and she was a good woman in my eyes," he says. Your email address will not be published. Upon Morris Cafritz's death in 1964, he became president of the Cafritz Co.; and in the first will Gwendolyn wrote, in 1969, which included all three sons, she made Calvin an executor and left him the Foxhall Road house. ", Conrad and Carter Cafritz have chosen instead the purgatory of probate court, where their complaints suggest less lovely memories. It is easy to imagine that for a son of Morris Cafritz, watching great deals go unmade is a kind of hell. Michael J. Dowling, who became the Cafritzes' butler in the early '60s, describes a tragically common decline. 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. But they also sort of outraged people." His commitment to causes and institutions extended beyond writing checks to giving time and energy. Of the $54 million the foundation has given away since 1970, $32 million has gone to the arts and humanities, almost $9 million to community services, $8 million to education and almost $5 million to health. (His first wife, Jennifer, has since married Laughlin Phillips, son of Duncan and Marjorie Phillips and president of the Phillips Collection.). "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. It's surprising how much a musical selection can affect mourning. The trust was established at the death of Morris Cafritz in June 1964 in the interests of saving estate taxes. But almost no one seems to doubt that Conrad is the main force behind it. By the time of her death, however, Calvin was still the son closest to his mother. 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. 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. "I've just bought 100 acres of downtown Washington," he was fond of saying. There are no events at this time. He is survived by his loving and devoted wife, Jane Lipton Cafritz, a distinguished Washington lawyer, whom he married on June 1, 2000. In July 1993, he was elected President and CEO of the Foundation and in the last six months became Chairman Emeritus. 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. Cafritz exemplified what it means to be an inspirational leader and a great human being, said Pyatybratova. He also is a director. 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. 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. To Edward R. Murrow, in a 1956 interview, she said that to speak of Washington cocktail parties was "unfair to Washington. Calvin Cafritz (1931-2023) | The Georgetowner 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. 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. And Gwendolyn's estate is not, in the end, the only -- or even the main thing -- at stake. Of the three Cafritz sons, says restaurateur Herb White, "Conrad seems to be the one who has something to prove to himself.". ", While she cultivated the mighty, Morris looked closer to home, helping to found the Washington Community Chest, becoming an activist in local Jewish groups. 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. In 2021 alone, the foundation awarded some 430 grants to 413 nonprofits. . You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or plant a tree in memory of Calvin Cafritz. James Edward Cafritz Obituary Because Gwendolyn's estate has not been probated, its value is hard to establish. Cafritz Family Obituaries | Cafritz Last Name Obits January 12, 2023 Copyright 2023 Echovita Inc. All rights reserved. . If she gave them an order, they took it lightly, because she liked to drink. "I'm sure part of it was to show Herb Miller he was serious.". All of their lives, the Cafritz boys have been aware of their status as the sons of Morris and Gwendolyn. She was a member of Main Street Church of Christ in Monticello, AR. 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. Meanwhile, for as long as it takes, Conrad's childhood home turns a sleeping face to Foxhall Road, drapes drawn at all the windows. 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. It is a jolting reminder that Peggy and Conrad, a black woman married to a white Jewish millionaire in a racially divided city, represent a fascinating reshuffling of the social deck that produced the polarized marriage of Morris and Gwendolyn.