The trust was established at the death of Morris Cafritz in June 1964 in the interests of saving estate taxes. . . It was an invitation to stroll around the house and remember: When Gwen Cafritz, with her 19-inch waist and Balmain gowns, her raven hair and regal air, had won constant publicity for her parties -- 22 to dinner, with toasts over champagne, and enormous receptions like this one each spring and fall. "Carter Cafritz is just a genuine nice fellow," says Raymond Carter, a former vice president of the Cafritz Co. "Conrad is more in the father's mold. Conrad's strange, and doesn't mind people thinking that he's strange; he kind of encourages it.". 91. "Those were her orders: The Scotch should never be let go beneath the neck of the decanter. "She was a classic case," summarizes Vidal. 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. Distinguished D.C. Government Employees Recognized at Cafritz Awards Gala, Office of Communications & Marketing Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. She carried her isolation to her grave. Cafritz Family Obituaries | Cafritz Last Name Obits 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. 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.". . a medically-induced . All of their lives, the Cafritz boys have been aware of their status as the sons of Morris and Gwendolyn. At seated dinners for 22, she entertained ambassadors and justices, senators and Cabinet secretaries. "I just thought she maybe had had enough of running around, and she was maybe going to stay in a while. He had emigrated from Russia as a boy with his family, which stopped briefly in New York before settling down to run a grocery store at 24th and P streets NW. The family observed Jewish holidays, and the sons attended religious school at Washington Hebrew Congregation on weekends. In the 1400 block of Spring Road NW is a row of seven almost identical walk-up apartment buildings. Rogers, an attorney general under President Eisenhower and secretary of state under Richard Nixon, declined to be interviewed for this story; he has denied the allegations in papers filed in court. He was 91. Senator Barry Goldwater . 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. 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. Ridgewell's had produced, out of retirement, the same waiter who had announced the guests eight years before. Cafritz exemplified what it means to be an inspirational leader and a great human being, said Pyatybratova. . "Maybe we try a little harder because our family name is well-known," he told a reporter in 1965. About - The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation CAFRITZ SONS WIN ESTATE CHALLENGE - The Washington Post 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. "He wasn't overly enthused about it, but those were her wishes, and he sort of enjoyed it in a quiet way. ", Conrad Cafritz is, in a word fondly used by friends, weird. He was 91 years of. "Lots of times she could drink and she knew exactly what she was doing. Unless you are experienced as an estate executor, you probably should hire an attorney. For another, he is said to alternate in seconds between a manic intensity and a mumbling diffidence. Mr. Cafritz is also survived by his brother Conrad Cafritz. CAFRITZ V. CAFRITZ - The Washington Post Twenty-four years later, when Gwendolyn Cafritz died, her estate consisted of two parts: the marital trust established under Morris's will, and her own property -- the landmark house on Foxhall Road and various real estate, stocks, bonds and savings accounts. They're not a map to follow, but simply a description of what people commonly feel. Rachel M. Ratowsky Obituary Mr. 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. If she gave them an order, they took it lightly, because she liked to drink. Then there is the foundation itself, with its powerful endowment for the city. Echovita offers a solidarity program that gives back the funds generated to families. She was a member of Main Street Church of Christ in Monticello, AR. 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. Giving to charity is a meaningful way to honor someone who has died. 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. 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 . Because Gwendolyn's estate has not been probated, its value is hard to establish. Calvin Cafritz, D.C. developer and head of the Cafritz Foundation, dies Conrad is angrily aware, say friends, that his success will always be explained away. 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. "Right at the moment he could be most charming, he does something to undercut it," says one friend. 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. They keep china and glassware sufficient to serve hundreds. 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. You have funeral questions, we have answers. No one needed to be told that this was Gwendolyn Cafritz's last hurrah. 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. 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. 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. She could no longer make an entrance, of course. Morris had one vision, and Gwendolyn another; whoever now gains control might offer still a third. 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. 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 . 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 Memoriam: Calvin Cafritz. 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. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. March 29, 1931 - The strange paradox of her marriage was that Morris's money enabled her to carry out her lavish social dreams, while the family's being Jewish also placed limits on her chances of realizing them. 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." In his later years he established one of the Washington region's leading philanthropic entities, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. And to the publicity-loathing cave dwellers, the Georgetown hostesses who were society leaders by birth, Gwendolyn's so-visible efforts made her a figure of fun. Add a photo or a video "I think it has the clean linear design of a Botticelli, and the elegance of an English portrait," she burbles, in her faintly accented great-lady voice, "and that's the way I would like my children to remember me. Another asks the bank to produce "all documents relating to purchase or provision of wine, champagne, or liquor on behalf of or for Gwendolyn Cafritz or for delivery to or consumption at 2301 Foxhall Road. At the least, then, Gwendolyn's will disposes of more than $140 million. 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. 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 Cafritz Foundation is also a longtime supporter of GWs Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service. Calvin Cafritz, a successful businessman, was involved in real estate for more than fifty years. There are, superficially, great similarities among the three brothers, who all share their mother's dark coloring. But in the end, her siege of Washington society outlasted most of those limits. And by 1970, arts and humanities took the largest share of the funding. Conrad has six children -- three adopted sons, who were Jennifer's by a first marriage; two daughters with Jennifer; and, with Peggy, 5-year-old Zachary. Cafritz was a tireless promoter of the city. "Conrad is really an anomaly," says lawyer and real estate developer Donald Brown. 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. Influence over the city's future -- no doubt. "Conrad was persistent as hell in getting that project," says one person familiar with Conrad's business. 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. Her skin had an unhealthy, pouchy pallor; extending an uncertain hand, she had the air of a dreamer deploying remembered charms. Of the three sons, Calvin seems to have had the best relationship with his mother. 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. 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. 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. He resigned seven years later to form Cafritz Enterprises. There are no events at this time. If youre in charge of handling the affairs for a recently deceased loved one, this guide offers a helpful checklist. 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.