Senator Barry Goldwater . Each is in his second marriage; each is in some way involved in the arts. 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. 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. Then there is the charitable legacy. Calvin Cafritz, the eldest son of real estate developer Morris Cafritz, died last week at the age of 91. There are hints too that he has social ambitions on Gwendolyn's scale, if not exactly of her type. In 2001, the Cafritz Foundation gave $1 million toward the Cafritz Conference Center in the University Student Center. 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. 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. 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. All three sons were rumored to have difficult relationships with their mother, and it was rare to find them together, bearing in unison the family standard. Says a friend, "He thinks they're a lot of fuddy-duddies living in the 17th century." 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). 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. Home The D.C. community is better for his engagement and we will miss him terribly.. Add a photo or a video 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. CALVIN FRITZ OBITUARY Wyoming - Calvin "Roger" Fritz, 69, of Wyoming, passed away at 5:29 p.m. Friday, December 24, 2021 at his home. He too has denied the sons' allegations in his formal answer to their complaint. At the heart of the lawsuit is a quest to gain at least partial control over the whole empire of which Gwendolyn's estate is an integral piece, over the whole legacy that Morris Cafritz created. She was 78 years old. 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. And Gwendolyn's estate is not, in the end, the only -- or even the main thing -- at stake. "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. Receive obituaries from the city or cities of your choice. In addition to his loving family, he leaves behind a long-time member of the family household, Lilian Punzalan, and countless admiring friends. "I know Atlas hates publicity like poison," says Raymond Carter, a former Cafritz Co. vice president. 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. You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or plant a tree in memory of Calvin Cafritz. As the hostess had asked, Ridgewell's Caterers heaped the silver platters and chafing dishes with the same filling, fusty food -- the whole poached salmon, the ham and turkey and carved tenderloin; none of the pastas or blackened seafood or grilled vegetables then in fashion. 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. 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. 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. "He's always very, very protective of the Cafritz name, as if it were his own. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Calvin Cafritz to show support. Baron and Baroness Constantine Stackelberg . Betty Lou Roberts Colvin, age 84 of Warren, AR passed away November 5, 2020 at Chapel Woods Nursing Home in Warren, AR. ", 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. He was an excellent listener and always got both the big picture and important details by asking insightful questions. It is a secretive organization: The foundation would answer no questions for this article. Even as the chaos of wartime Washington started to loosen social strictures, Washington's leading hostess, Evalyn Walsh McLean, stopped entertaining; this opening, together with a boost from Eleanor "Cissy" Patterson, publisher of the Washington Times-Herald, gave Gwendolyn her opportunity. 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. 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. 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 . The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation is already, with its more than $220 million in assets, the largest source of private funds earmarked for the District of Columbia. ", Gwendolyn reportedly raised her children according to the dictates of her European background -- under the aegis of servants, to be seen and not heard. "Carter, he always did what the other two did," says Casey. He was 91. 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. Funeral arrangement under the care ofSAGEL BLOOMFIELD DANZANSKY GOLDBERG FUNERAL CARE INC. Calvin Cafritz, D.C. developer and head of the Cafritz Foundation, dies at 91. bizjournals.com - Michael Neibauer 20h. Conrad is angrily aware, say friends, that his success will always be explained away. . 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.". "Right at the moment he could be most charming, he does something to undercut it," says one friend. By the time of her death, however, Calvin was still the son closest to his mother. 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. 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. But in the end, her siege of Washington society outlasted most of those limits. You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or plant a tree in memory of Calvin Cafritz. Except for minor bequests to former employees and other family members, she also left to the foundation all of the property she owned outright. But it was a heady enough wine to call out 300 guests, and the ghosts of many more who had preceded them. Published by The Washington Post on Jan. 22, 2023. All three stayed in Washington to work at some variation of their father's trade. She was a member of Main Street Church of Christ in Monticello, AR. Cardiac Arrest.Most Shocking Celebrity Deaths of All Time, Over the last few decades, there have been some shocking and untimely deaths of few celebrities, Celebrity deaths in 2022: Remembering the famous faces we lost this year . He was "greatly respected and liked, even in an antisemitic society," recalls Dixon. If you experience a barrier that affects your ability to access content on this page, let us know via the. 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. He served in these roles until 2022, when Jane Lipton Cafritz, his wife, was elected Board Chair and President and CEO. 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). 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? Ways to honor Calvin Cafritz's life and legacy. ", While she cultivated the mighty, Morris looked closer to home, helping to found the Washington Community Chest, becoming an activist in local Jewish groups. Today, he is married to Peggy Cooper Cafritz, who is a local power in the arts and in liberal political causes -- and the only Cafritz listed in Who's Who. "With so-called friends all around her, she was a very lonely woman," says Dowling. 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. 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. When the Duke and Duchess of Windsor came and danced downstairs in "the Club," with the dance floor lighted from below. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. At seated dinners for 22, she entertained ambassadors and justices, senators and Cabinet secretaries. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Calvin Cafritz to show support.
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