PART TWO
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In the second of a two-part series examining the state of wealth and philantrophy in the greater metro Washington area,WL and its team of researchers and writers turn their atttention on individuals with a net worth between $25 million and $200 billion ... Where did you land?
And who gives it away?
Left to right: Norman Dreyfuss, Betty Brown Casey, F. Davis Camalier, and Stuart and Wilma Bernstein.
$100-$200 MILLION PETER ACKERMAN When Peter Ackerman became managing director of the energy, materials and process industries venture capital firm Rockport Capital, Inc., his fortune was made. However, it’s his status as a scholar (he has a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University) that qualifies him to talk the talk. Ackerman chairs the boards of The Fletcher School and Freedom House and is the founding chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
ARTHUR W NICK ARUNDEL Some tycoons collect baseball teams or wives. Not Nick Arundel – he collects newspapers. After earning an early fortune from a PepsiCola bottling plant and the sale of WAVA radio, he started in the print business. He’s the chairman and publisher of Times Community Newspapers, an umbrella that keeps the rain
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off the Fauquier Citizen and Culpeper Citizen, plus 16 other NoVa papers. Arundel turned the computerized presses over to son Peter, and son John brought back the Alexandria Times after acquiring it from his family. The Arundels started the Great Meadow Foundation, which has housed community activities, including the Virginia Gold Cup, since 1982. They also donated the Arundel Family Library at the Potomac School and an emergency wing to Fauquier Hospital.
in 2007. Equally charitable, Howard Bender and wife, Sondra, have left their mark through contributions to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington’s Bender-Dosik Parenting Center, and the Bender Arena and Library at American University. The family has contributed more than $1 million to the Holocaust Museum.
HOWARD BENDER AND MORTON BENDER
ANNE CAMALIER CHARLES A CAMALIER III F DAVIS CAMALIER GREGORY CAMALIER F DAVIS CAMALIER LISA CAMALIER AND DEBORAH CAMALIER
Blake Construction Company was started by David Bender and then taken over by his three sons: Howard, Morton, Stanley (who sadly passed away earlier this year).They built many major real estate landmarks: to name a few, the Walter J. Reed Army Medical Center, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, and several metro stations. Morton and his wife Grace gave $5 million to George Washington University
These fifth-generation Washingtonians originally made their family fortune with the venerable leather good and gift specialty store Camalier & Buckley, but in recent generations the family has focused their interests in real estate. Long-time possessors of a prime wedge of undeveloped land inside the Beltway, the Camaliers are notably wary of making hasty development decisions – and,
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as such, they have added to their inheritance. The Camaliers are staunch supporters of local educational institutions (Holton Arms and the Lab School) and causes related to the Roman Catholic Church.
BETTY BROWN CASEY Maryland developer Eugene B. Casey was such a skinflint (or conservation minded) that he was known to turn off the office Coke machine at night to save money. His widow, Betty Brown Casey, has used his millions to endow numerous causes - chief among them the Washington National Opera. In 1996, Mrs Casey bought the old Woodward & Lothrop building downtown for $18 million with plans to turn it into a grand new home for the company. When the opera elected to stay at the Kennedy Center instead, the benefactress promptly sold the site to developer Douglas Jemal for a whopping $28.2 million and then turned the proceeds over to the opera’s
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