Case for Support > Honor Roll > Fritzi

Donor Profile:  David and Fritzi Huntington

A Family Affair

For David and Fritzi Huntington and their twin daughters, Claudia and Claire, the history of this institution was always something of a family affair. David was Henry Huntington’s grandson, and he used to tell his daughters stories about playing on the lawn in front of his grandfather’s house when he was a boy. The cultural legacy of The Huntington has thus been close to the family’s heart. Preserving it continues to be a family passion.

When Claudia Huntington and her family were poised to make a Campaign gift, she asked President Steve Koblik, “What is the hardest thing to raise money for?”

"Things invisible to the public’s eye,” he replied, citing the property’s infrastructure needs as an example: maintenance, repairs, and upkeep of buildings and facilities that are essential to managing a historic estate. Claudia and her husband Marshall Miller, on behalf of the family, have therefore donated $1 million to establish the David and Fritzi Huntington Infrastructure Endowment in honor of her mother and late father.

             
“This was our great-grandfather’s home,” says Claudia. “We’d like to help do things he would have done if he were alive, and taking care of the property would certainly have been a high priority for him.”

Claudia and her sister Claire are the granddaughters of Clara Leonora Huntington, Henry Huntington’s eldest daughter. Their father David, who died in 1991, was Clara’s son. The gift celebrates David and Fritzi’s long devotion to the institution, where David served on the board of Overseers in the 1970s. That devotion has been passed on to their daughters: Claudia herself has been a Huntington Overseer since 2004 and has served on the institution’s Art Collectors’ Council. She and Marshall have been Huntington Circle Life Fellows since 1973, as have Claire Huntington McCloud and her husband Kimball McCloud.

             
The decision to give an endowment gift, Claudia says, stems from her belief that a strong endowment makes a strong institution. “An endowment is the key to an institution’s ability to operate effectively, not only for the present, but also for the future,” she adds.

             
It is also the strength of generational ties such as these maintained by Claudia and her family that will serve The Huntington for years to come.