I just make speeches.". JAMES CAFRITZ Obituary (1930 - 2020) - Rockville, DC - The Washington Post Devoted father to Laurence (Sherri) Cafritz and Jodi (Mark Bronsky) Cafr "That black sense of humor asserts itself, or he'll do something outrageous." 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. ", High culture was one of her chosen routes to acceptance. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. 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. Conrad's strategy has been diversity. 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. Her two younger sons have also filed a separate petition that pursues only the marital trust. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Calvin Cafritz please visit our,
An obituary is not available at this time for Calvin Cafritz. Website by Red Clay Creative, Chances are, many Washingtonians might not even realize how much real estate the Cafritz family is responsible for in the area. Some basic help and starters when you have to write a tribute to someone you love. 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. When the Duke and Duchess of Windsor came and danced downstairs in "the Club," with the dance floor lighted from below. Calvin Frazier - Wikipedia He has always been involved in the bread and butter real estate of housing, from building single-family homes in Prince William County to renovating apartment complexes in Alexandria; he was a major beneficiary of the Washington condo boom. This suit asks the court to overturn her will, after which, under D.C. law, her property would be divided among her sons. 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. including, but not limited to, any facilities located in Washington, D.C.; Palm Beach, Florida; or Monte Carlo, Monaco." 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. 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. There are also real estate assets at Arlingtons 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, which is the former home of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. If you know of an upcoming event for Calvin Cafritz, please add one. He often conveyed his conviction that believing in a cause obligated one to support it financially. Perhaps the most remarkable member of this third generation is his daughter Julia, who dropped out of Brown University four years ago with a classmate to found a band named Pussy Galore. To one interviewer she said that art was "the theme, you might say" of her life, "as in a Wagnerian opera." Operating under his own banner, Calvin Cafritz Enterprises, he has built both residential and commercial buildings in D.C. and Virginia. "He took me into the kitchen and showed me how the cook would leave coffee for him in the morning," remembers the friend. Roger was born on September 30, 1952 in Toulon, the son. Jane Lipton Cafritz was elected in the second half of 2022 to succeed her husband as the foundations president and CEO. All of their lives, the Cafritz boys have been aware of their status as the sons of Morris and Gwendolyn. He was preceded in death by his brother Carter Cafritz. Since 1989, Cafritz led the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, a charitable organization named for his parents. With support from the Cafritz Foundation, the Center for Excellence in Public Leadership hosts a yearly awards gala to honor D.C. government employees who demonstrate outstanding public service. 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. For another, he is said to alternate in seconds between a manic intensity and a mumbling diffidence. "She felt that was the end, when she couldn't function socially.". CAFRITZ SONS WIN ESTATE CHALLENGE - The Washington Post 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. 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. If she gave them an order, they took it lightly, because she liked to drink. Morris Cafritz - Wikipedia "Getting along with her," says one developer who knows the family, "was something none of them ever mastered. Remembering Calvin Cafritz - The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation She was multilingual and had studied art history at the University of Budapest. Cafritz was a native and longtime resident of Washington, DC. 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. Distinguished D.C. Government Employees Recognized at Cafritz Awards Gala, Office of Communications & Marketing 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. Except for minor bequests to former employees and other family members, she also left to the foundation all of the property she owned outright. Cafritz's passing was confirmed by the charitable organization named after Morris and his wife, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Cafritz Family Obituaries | Cafritz Last Name Obits We will miss his gracious and generous presence.. At the least, then, Gwendolyn's will disposes of more than $140 million. Expand the Memories and Condolences form. 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. Click here for full story from WTOP and the Washington Business Journal. Calvin H. Frazier (February 16, 1915 - September 23, 1972) was an American Detroit blues and country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. "Decedent's condition deteriorated after the death of her husband in 1964 and grew worse in the following years. 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. All Rights Reserved. Power List 2010: DC Family Dynasties - Washington Life Magazine ", Her drinking got out of control, he agrees, shortly after Morris Cafritz's sudden death of a heart attack in 1964. Where he was meat and potatoes, earnest frugality, civic pride, she was flashing dark beauty, mercurial moods and social ambition. Yet in Morris's absence, the family was anything but the tight-knit dynasty he had paved the way for. If you experience a barrier that affects your ability to access content on this page, let us know via the. 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. "Conrad is really an anomaly," says lawyer and real estate developer Donald Brown. Her hair was still a lacquered black, heavily dressed as always at the back of her head. 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. 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. Following the death of his father, Calvin became president of The Cafritz Co., Cafritz Construction Co. and Ambassador, Inc. in 1964. 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. 91. But Carter and Conrad Cafritz are not named in their mother's will. 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. It is hard not to wonder what the effect might have been of hearing Gwendolyn Cafritz's will read for the first time. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. ", Gwendolyn reportedly raised her children according to the dictates of her European background -- under the aegis of servants, to be seen and not heard. To plant trees in memory, please visit the. Calvin, Carter and Conrad, all of Washington, and 13 grandchildren. Money -- to be sure. He also is a director. "The decanter always had to be full," Dowling says. Tech Tip: How to Turn Documents and Images into PDFs in Android. Calvin Cafritz and the Cafritz Foundation have been part of the GW Honey Nashman Center from its earliest roots in the Office of Community Service and the Neighbors Project in the 1990s through to the present, said Amy Cohen, executive director of the center. The India-born founder and CEO of District-based software company Hunch Analytics is an active benefactor of both Washington and Indian causes and nonprofit groups. 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. To slip out of the speedy traffic on Foxhall Road into the half-circle driveway was to slip back in time. 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. In his later years he established one of the Washington region's leading philanthropic entities, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. 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 Remembrance. He served in these roles until 2022, when Jane Lipton Cafritz, his wife, was elected Board Chair and President and CEO. Cafritz is survived by Jane, his third wife, who is a lawyer in the area. A memorial service will be held at a later date. 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." He never tired of committing himself to this mission, which only grew bigger with time. 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. There are hints too that he has social ambitions on Gwendolyn's scale, if not exactly of her type. Mr. 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. ", Conrad Cafritz is, in a word fondly used by friends, weird. "Calvin is a very sweet, very nice person," says D.C. lawyer Max N. Berry. "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. a medically-induced . The Morris and. The foundation is Washington's largest source of private funds earmarked exclusively for local projects, large enough to give the person who controls it a potentially shaping influence on the city. As he stood by her chair, he could name at a glance quite a few of the guests -- Chief Justice and Mrs. Warren Burger . In the process, he amassed one of the first great fortunes to be carved out of Washington itself. James Edward Cafritz <p>James Edward Cafritz of Bethesda, MD, passed away on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, at the age of 90. In Memoriam: Calvin Cafritz | GW Today | The George Washington University 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. You have funeral questions, we have answers. With that philosophy he built a substantial reputation for philanthropy. He was 91 at the time he died. Marvin LaVerne Katz, 83, of Dallas, Texas, passed away on November 22, 2019 in Dallas. What kind of arrangement is appropriate, where should you send it, and when should you send an alternative? (202) 338-4833, Georgetown Media Group. "I know Atlas hates publicity like poison," says Raymond Carter, a former Cafritz Co. vice president. G Guest 4 hours ago Comment Share T The staff at Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care Inc a day ago We plant this tree as a living memorial to Calvin. 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. 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. Unless you are experienced as an estate executor, you probably should hire an attorney. At the time the lawsuit was filed, family sources told The Washington Post that the marital trust was worth $84 million. But it was a heady enough wine to call out 300 guests, and the ghosts of many more who had preceded them.