WALLACE AND WILHELMINA HOLLADAY The Holladays, established real estate developers, are perhaps best known for transforming the former Masonic Temple on the corner of 13th Street and New York Avenue, NW into the National Museum of Women in the Arts. This year, NMWA has organized the New York Avenue Sculpture Project, a public art exhibit to take place in several segments, which is meant to bring more vitality and life to the downtown business district. The first installment will be the bright and bold sculptures of the late French sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle. In late 2008, Mrs. Holladay published the book, “A Museum of Their Own: National Museum of Women in the Arts,” which chronicles her journey to create the museum and her fight to get recognition for female artists.
ROBERT AND ARLENE KOGOD CLARICE SMITH For years, brothers-in-law Robert Kogod and Robert H. Smith were at the helm of the Charles E. Smith real estate empire and helped to expand it into a billion dollar-plus enterprise. Smith died in December 2009, leaving an amazing philanthropic legacy, having donated funds for the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland in addition to the $130 million Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Kogod donated the courtyard to connect the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum at a cost of $25 million. In 2009, both families committed $10 million for a transformational renovation of the Charles E. Smith Center at George Washington University. With the family’s strong history of philanthropic work, there is no doubt that the Kogods and Clarice Smith will continue to support performing arts and other worthy causes in and around Washington.
founded in 1983. He advised them to hold on to the shares for a few decades, as an investment of $10,000 in Danaher stock in 1984 would be worth over $2 million today. Mitch Rales has donated $325 million to the arts and children’s causes in cash and other assets. Steve Rales is a dedicated supporter of the Washington Ballet and DePauw University.
Arlene and Robert Kogod
THOMAS D RUTHERFOORD JR
Mitch Rales
President of Thomas Rutherfoord, Inc., one of the mid-Atlantic region’s leading firms of insurance agents, brokers, and consultants, Rutherfoord has served as a trustee of The Phillips Collection since 1999. The UVA grad is active with the Metropolitan Club and gives generously to Hollins University, The JamestownYorktown Foundation, and Georgetown’s Christ Church.
FRANK AND TRICIA SAUL Though the founder of B.F. Saul Real Estate Investment Trust and Chevy Chase Bank sold the bank to Capital One for $520 million in cash and stocks, he remains a major philanthropist and generous contributor to the National Gallery of Art and other art and cultural institutions. Frank Saul serves on the board of National Geographic, the trustees council of the National Gallery of Art as well as on the boards of the Library of Congress Trust Fund and the National Sporting Library. He is an honorary trustee of the Brookings Institution, trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins Medicine, and a life trustee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Tricia Saul is co-chair of Friends of Blair House and is also active in the International Neighbors Club, which helps to welcome foreign women to the area.
George and Trish Vrandenburg
Wilhelmina Holladay
GEORGE AND TRISH VRADENBURG HEATHER AND TONY PODESTA The Podestas have donated over 300 valuable contemporary works to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. If the Holladays have helped NMWA rescue artists from the past, the Podestas have enabled it to collect living artists so they will be remembered and recognized in the future. Heather also does other good deeds around town, including the Red Shoe event, which was held at NMWA this year.
MITCH AND STEVE RALES Mitch Rales is a major donor to the National Gallery of Art, providing funds through his Glenstone Foundation. In an interesting twist on giving, he spoke last month at the Farmer School of Business at Miami University and gave each of the 900 graduates one share of Danaher Corporation stock, a company he and his brother Steven
Although the former AOL executive “retired” in 2003, George Vrandenburg seems to be busier than ever. He now serves as president of the Vrandenburg Foundation, which supports health care & life science, arts and culture, energy, education, and homeland security by giving approximately $1.2 million in grants each year. In addition to the Phillips Collection (where, as chairman, he is spearheading fundraising for the museum’s endowment), he and his wife are engaged in the Alzheimer’s Movement, the Chesapeake Crescent Initiative, DC Vote, Theater J, and Teach for America. Deeply committed to education reform, George serves as chairman for the D.C. Education Compact and serves on the boards of the Washington Scholarship Fund and D.C. Children First, a scholarship organization for lowincome children and families. The couple also publish Tikkun, a progressive Jewish magazine.
Heather and Tony Podesta
Thomas Rutherfoord 42
Frank Saul