- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

NJM Insurance Group.

Serving New Jersey’s drivers, homeowners and business owners for more than 100 years.

RWJBarnabas Health.

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The New Jersey Education Association.

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United Airlines.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

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Promotional support provided by New Jersey Globe.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

The magazine of the Garden State, available at newsstands.

- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

_ It’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, welcome to "Remember Them," Steve Adubato, with my co-anchor, our executive producer, Jacqui Tricarico.

Hey Jacqui, how we doing today?

- Doing great, Steve.

Excited to remember our next guest, somebody you knew personally, - Steve Kalafer.

Lemme tee this up.

Steve Kalafer, an amazing guy, a great business professional and entrepreneur, a philanthropist.

He was the person who's responsible for the Somerset Patriots, Minor League baseball team connected to the New York Yankees.

Steve was just someone who gave back.

He made a lot of money, but he gave back.

He was a great business person, but he thought about others.

He was also a filmmaker in his spare time.

Yeah, I said this too in the interview that I did with his son, Josh.

I said he was a real renaissance man.

And PS, before you even came on board, Jacqui, 15 or so years ago in our production operation, Steve is one of the early underwriters supporters of our programming and mentors of mine.

He was awesome.

- He really was, Steve.

And I looked back at a 2014 interview you did with Steve Kalafer and you said it during that interview too.

You called him a renaissance man and he is in so many different ways.

He had his hands in so many things, impacted so many people's lives here in New Jersey and we see his legacy live on through those like the Somerset Patriots.

But philanthropy was really at the core of all of that and it's just so nice to be able to hear from his son as well as Michele Siekerka from the NJBIA, which Steve Kalafer was a part of that as well.

Just to get a more in depth look into his life and what really drove him and all of his various passions.

And I have to say, Steve, New Jersey Hall of Fame got it right in 2019 inducting him into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

And we get to see a clip from that induction ceremony video, Steve Kalafer talking directly to us about what that means to him and what that meant to him.

- As always, Jacqui, teed it up so well.

We'll be talking to Michele Siekerka for the Business and Industry Association and also Josh Kalafer, Steve's son who is a key part even today with some others leading the Somerset Patriots.

We honor, we remember the great, the iconic Steve Kalafer.

(gentle music) - I would like to thank the Hall of Fame of New Jersey.

This is a tremendous honor for not only me and my family, but everybody that has a dream of going into business.

Our roles as entrepreneurs, as capital formation builders, as job builders, is to make certain that every day we go out to work, so that dreams of others can be met.

You can be entrepreneurial in business.

Yes, the automobile business, the real estate business, the motion picture business.

But to be entrepreneurial in the giving back business, making certain that those that are less fortunate have the treasure that you create for the purposes of doing good.

- Talking about, honoring and paying tribute to Steve Kalafer.

Were joined by Michele Siekerka, our good friend, been with us many times, President and CEO, New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

Thank you, Michele.

- Always a pleasure, Steve, thanks so much for engaging me in this important discussion.

- Absolutely.

Steve was very much connected to BIA, the Business and Industry Association.

How so?

A. And B, what made him a great business professional?

- So Steve served on the board for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association for many years, and Steve was on the search committee that brought me to NJBIA.

So I do hold a very fond spot in my heart for him.

Well, the type of person that Steve Kalafer was, everything he did, he did with kindness, with fairness, empathy, but knew how to get a deal done, right?

He was the type of person who was very understated and had very a quiet, strong presence.

And a great example of that is, he had all these car dealerships, right?

- He did.

- The Flemington Cars, everything from Ford to Fufu, I would say.

- That's right.

- And where was his desk?

His desk was situated at the entry door of the Ford dealership, so that every person that walked into the Ford dealership, he could say hello to.

That was his desk, that was his name plaque, that was Steve Kalafer.

- The other part of Steve, whom I knew very well, he was a very big supporter of what we were doing when we started our production operation, is that he was philanthropic.

He gave back.

And we'll be talking to Josh Kalafer, Steve's son, right after Michele, to talk more about Steve, who understood that side as well.

But making money is one thing, being a philanthropist and giving back is another.

Talk about that, Michele.

- Yeah.

So he believed in work hard, earn money, but do good.

And I'm holding a coin that he gave to people that had his mantra on it, everything I just said is on this coin.

- "Be kind.

Be fair."

- Yes.

"Be kind.

Be fair.

Work hard.

Make money.

Do good."

The do good was the philanthropy that was Steve Kalafer, and if you wanna talk about some examples of that, we can have at it.

- Give us one.

- The Safe At Home Foundation.

- The Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, obviously Steve had a real connection to the New York Yankees, and was very close to Joe Torre.

Go ahead.

- So people would think, you know, oh, you own the Somerset Patriots, that's all about, you know, having prestige and glamour.

No, you know what it was about, it was about bringing Joe Torre in in order to raise money for the Safe At Home Foundation.

That was the type of philanthropy that was Steve Kalafer.

I'm fascinated by Steve Kalafer's leadership style and why it was so darn effective.

Michele, please?

- He was very engaging.

So I mentioned before that, you know, he's a big reason why I wound up here at NJBIA, he was on the search committee.

And as soon as I was offered the position and had just said yes, a package arrived on my door that had mascots of the Somerset Patriots, that had cheer flags that said, "Welcome to the team, Michele, we can't wait to make you a part of the team."

That's how he welcomed me to his family.

I remember saying to my husband, and within the first two weeks he invited me to one of his fundraisers, and I saw what he did in philanthropy, I remember saying to my husband, "Wow, I am among some really special people here."

- Yeah.

Steve Kalafer, as Jacqui and I said in the introduction, inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, 2019.

Last question is this.

For you, Michele.

Steve Kalafer should be remembered how?

- As a leader, who, I'm gonna repeat it, was fair, worked hard, realized and understood where people came from and met them where they were at.

But don't get it wrong, he was a firm hard businessman, but he just knew how to do it the right way.

- Now we continue to honor and remember and pay tribute to Steve Kalafer.

Thank you, Michele, appreciate it, my friend.

- Thank you so much.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- We are honored to be joined by Josh Kalafer, co-owner and co-chairman of the great Somerset Patriots and Steve Kalafer's son.

Good to see you, Josh.

- Good to see you, Steve, thanks for having me.

- You got it, we also wanna thank our good friends over at Fedway for making this connection.

They introduced us way back in the day to Steve.

And we talked to Michele Siekerka about your dad as a businessperson, as someone very connected to the Business & Industry Association, but you got a great quote.

You said, "He was the kindest," you told our producers, "He was the kindest human being in the world."

- Yeah.

- Please talk about that.

- It's easy to talk about because it's so true.

A lotta people see him in the context or through the lens of what he accomplished in business and in a lot of other ways, very often philanthropy.

And the kindness factored into his daily routine certainly in business, and to a greater degree, philanthropy.

But what I can really speak to in a unique position, along with my brother, my mom, and our family, is his kindness as a person to his family, to his friends, and I think most importantly, to strangers.

He used to love to say, "You can really understand somebody, you can really know somebody when you have a chance or the ability to have a glimpse as to how they behave when they think nobody is looking."

And he lived every second of his life that way.

- The part that always fascinated me about your dad was that, and I know this term is used sometimes, Josh, oh, "So and so's a renaissance man or woman."

But he was.

I mean, his fascination, business, philanthropy, sports, his connection to the Yankees, all right, obviously with Somerset Patriots being the team, the AA team leading up to the Yankees, but also film.

Where does film come in as a filmmaker, Josh?

- I think film came in because he loved to tell stories, true stories mostly, although he made some films that were fiction over the years.

But he really found his footing as a filmmaker and really hooked into a passion as a filmmaker when he started to make documentaries because he felt a responsibility and took an immense amount of joy in telling stories that he thought, usually properly, that nobody else would be willing to tell or be able to tell.

And they were very often stories about people who had endured something terrible or accomplished something incredible.

And they were so often stories that people might not know as well had it not been for his making a film about it.

- Well said, hey, Josh, let me ask you this.

Go back, I wanna talk about the Somerset Patriots.

His vision for a Minor League Baseball team that has become one of the most successful Minor League Baseball franchises in the country, where did that come from, Josh?

- That came from a dream.

He loved the game all his life.

He loved business all his life.

And obviously, had a great track record of success in business.

And he just always wanted to be in the baseball business.

And over the years, he certainly looked into Major League ownership in various markets, at various levels.

And he had looked for years at Minor League ownership.

And I think so many things about Minor League ownership appealed to him.

I think probably, more than anything else, the ability to bring baseball to a new community that didn't already have it was what drove him.

So I think it was a combination of a love for the game, a love for and acumen with regards to business, and the idea of creating something new where it hadn't been before.

There wasn't baseball here in Somerset County before.

And now there is and I do wanna make very clear that that was really a partnership between our great dad and the community here in Somerset County, the elected officials, the businesses.

- That's right.

- Fans, so whenever I give him credit for bringing baseball here, which I love to do, I always wanna make sure I give credit to everybody else in the community, from the fan on the street, to marketing partners and sponsors, to the groups who come out, and to our great elected officials.

- Absolutely.

How 'bout this one?

So your dad, healthcare, he was also very philanthropic, served on certain boards of certain large healthcare organizations.

His interest in healthcare, Josh?

- Yeah, I think it goes back to his love for people.

His interest in healthcare was pretty simple.

It was really a way for him to help people who needed healthcare, help people who were sick, help people who were having a tough time.

When he was a very young man, six years younger than I am now, he had his first cancer fight.

And he received incredible care and was very fortunate to have the resources to find that care, and was really very fortunate at that time to meet people in this community, here in Somerset County and in surrounding counties, who gave him and everybody else that he encountered wonderful care.

And I think it inspired him.

I think he probably woke up one day and said, "You know what, this is something I hadn't really given much thought to before.

I think I can help this community," in a way that, you know, is a little different possibly than he had been before.

And it was a love for the community and the institutions that treated him and served him, and that's basically a long answer to how he got involved in Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Somerset and elsewhere.

- You know, it's so interesting.

So many people who give, who are philanthropic, their name is on a building.

And I don't pass judgment, nothing wrong with that.

Your dad often gave anonymously.

- He really did.

In fact, it was only at the very, very end of his life that he would allow his name to be associated with gifts.

The vast majority of what he did, and I truly mean the vast, vast majority of what he did, was anonymous.

And in fact, the only reason towards the end that he really decided to allow his name to be tied into things was because it actually became a circumstance of, if you put your name on it, it might inspire others to give.

If he put his name on it- - That's right.

- He realized towards the end of his life that it might inspire friends, strangers, people in the community to, perhaps, join him.

And I do actually think that was right.

And I love the way he did it, because, for so long, he did it without really almost with a strict need for anonymity.

And when he put his name on things, there actually was a purpose.

And true to Dad, the purpose was to help other people give and to help inspire them.

- Josh, you know, again, earlier in my career, your dad was a mentor.

He contributed to what we were doing financially as well, a role model for all of us, who not just tried to be successful in business, but tried to remember the part about giving, sharing, being kind.

He was a great businessman, but he was never ruthless.

He wasn't loud.

He got things done in a unique and important and powerful way.

Thank you, Josh, talk soon.

- Thank you, Steve.

- Go Patriots.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

We now remember Doris Duke.

And Jacqui, you did a great interview with Margaret Waldock?

- Yeah, over at Duke Farms.

And Steve, this is someone I thought we should remember on our series.

I've been to Hillsborough, Duke Farms.

It's a huge estate, tons of property there.

I brought the kids there a couple of times.

You can tour the entire property, you can walk, bike.

There's a welcome center.

And so I thought it would be a great person to remember someone that maybe not as well known, but deserves the attention because she became a heiress at age 12.

She inherited her father's estate and millions, billions of dollars.

And what she did with that money really speaks volumes as to what was important to her.

Philanthropy being one of those things, conservation, which is why there is this estate and all this land in Hillsborough that Duke Farms makes sure it stays that way.

And also arts and culture.

So we hear more about that from Margaret.

- Socialite.

- Yeah and I know Margaret will tell us a little bit about this but she really was seen out with some famous folks during her time.

Remember this is the early 1900s.

So yeah, she was seen out with some famous actors, singers, people like that.

She was known during that time as the most wealthiest girl in the world.

So that says a lot- She was in the New York... She was in the New York... Sorry for interrupting.

The New York social scene.

- Mm hmm, yep, yep.

And she traveled the world as well.

She was seen traveling the world all the time.

seeing all these different places and bringing those inspirations back to New Jersey.

- So for those of you who appreciate Jacqui's interviews, and that's everyone, this is an interview Jacqui did with Margaret Waldock talking about Doris Duke.

Let's check it out.

- Joining us now as we remember Doris Duke is Margaret Waldock, who is the Executive Director of Duke Farms.

Great to have you with us, Margaret.

- Thanks for having me, Jacqui.

Great to be here.

- So Doris Duke was known as the richest girl in the world during her time after she was given her father's inheritance at the age of just 12 years old.

First, tell us a little bit about her father's legacy and just why and how he handed that down to his daughter.

- Yeah, so it's pretty, I think, a story of love, right?

And respect in that Doris Duke was the only child of James Buchanan Duke.

And he, you know, was an early 20th century industrialist and amassed a great fortune through all of his innovation and his ideas and unfortunately passed away when she was still a child, but left his entire estate to her, and I think really made a big impact on her, right?

She was really a very, she lived a life that was pretty remarkably complex and, you know, full of a lot of exploration and curiosity, but also a lot of conviction, right?

And passion and purpose.

And despite the fact that she, you know, unfortunately was the subject of a lot of tabloid scrutiny throughout her life, this idea of being one of the wealthiest children, right, in the world.

She really remained very private.

And I think the clues we get about who she was as a person are reflected in the life that she led and the kinds of relationships that she cultivated, and also really in the philanthropy and the way that she really gave back, right, to her community and to causes that were of deep personal concern for her.

- Definitely.

And with such big responsibility with the wealth, with, you know, everything that she was given, philanthropy really was something at the forefront for her.

Talk about some of those things that she was involved with in her philanthropic arm.

- Yeah, you know, she started her philanthropic work relatively young, you know, she was still kind of late teenager, early twenties when she started her first foundation.

And I would describe her philanthropy as sort of deeply personal to her.

I think she didn't leave behind a lot of personal perspective in the form of diaries or journals.

She didn't write an autobiography.

So we really learned a lot about her just through her action and where her giving was directed.

She really explored the world and got to know a lot of different cultures and people with different perspectives.

I think she was very self-aware of her privilege and also the sort of great disparity between the lifestyle that she was able to live compared to others, and cultivated a lot of interest in arts and culture, which was, you know, fairly popular in terms of philanthropic support, but also gravitated towards a lot of issues and causes that were not very mainstream and were even controversial in some ways.

In the 1960s, for example, she directed a lot of charitable giving to historically Black universities and colleges at a time in the civil rights movement.

She was an early supporter of jazz and modern dance at a time when those were kind of considered fringe art forms.

And in the '80s, very well known for her early support of AIDS research, which as we know at the time, was incredibly controversial.

But I think it really shows that she was somebody who gravitated towards issues that were very vital and important, but were not getting a lot of support at the time.

- Well speaking of arts and culture and conservation, let's talk about Duke Farms because it's right in Hillsborough, New Jersey.

I've been there quite a few times with my family.

It's beautiful.

There's a main building there where you can go in and learn a lot more of the history of Doris Duke and the family.

But describe for us who people who haven't been, what is Duke Farms?

- Yeah, so Duke Farms is almost 3,000 acres of farmland and natural areas and public park land here in central New Jersey.

So, you know, this was her father's estate.

James Buchanan Duke first assembled all of the land to create his gentleman's estate around the turn of the 20th century.

And then of course, she inherited it when she was in her twenties.

And this is where she really cultivated her love of nature and horticulture in particular and farming.

And when she died in the '90s, she left her entire estate to charitable purposes and made provisions for two properties that were very near and dear to her, Duke Farms here in Hillsborough, New Jersey, and then her home in Honolulu, Hawaii, which is now known as Shangri La Center for Islamic Art, but also global conversation.

And so Duke Farms was really an important place for her, I think because of its ties to her father.

This was a place that he loved, and also- - You call it her childhood playground, right?

- Yeah, she really was able to, you can imagine, right, this life of privilege, but also a lot of scrutiny, right?

And I think this was a place where she was able to really kind of be herself, right?

And explore, right?

And be a little bit adventurous.

And so she really, in addition to the estate that she inherited from her father, she also acquired additional farmland that she added to the property, about 300 acres.

And she was an early, you know, explorer of organic agriculture here.

So this was very much about a place of rest and relaxation for her, but also a place that sparked her curiosity as well.

- Part of that curiosity I know was with plants and flowers, and there's a beautiful greenhouse there that can visit while here at Duke Farms, and I know there's this particular orchid that was really important to her.

Talk about that.

What is that connection?

- Yeah, so she loved plants, and orchids in particular were a real favorite of hers, as you could see behind me, some of the orchids that were part of her collection that we still manage and maintain here today.

And early on in the '60s, her orchid growers on staff developed a special orchid, a hybrid called the Phalaenopsis Doris, which was a hybrid that really opened up the door for a commercial production of the Phalaenopsis orchids.

So many of the orchids that you buy commercially today in places like, you know, Home Depot and Lowe's, Phalaenopsis orchids have genetic ties to the Phalaenopsis orchid that was developed here by her growers.

So she really made a big impact on commercial orchid production.

And today, we maintain a collection of over a thousand distinct orchid taxa in our orchid greenhouse.

We call it an orchid range, many of which come from her original collection.

And it's a place that the public can come and enjoy all the beautiful variety of orchids that we have.

- Such a unique life, so many passions that she had.

What do you think, though, Doris Duke would want to be most remembered for?

- You know, I really think that she was really a remarkable woman in the way she lived her life, right?

Really shaped by passion and purpose.

And she really appreciated beauty and a life of beauty and meaning.

And I think it's really representative of the legacy that she left behind when she established the Doris Duke Foundation, which today carries on that legacy and directs grant-making towards issues related to health and wellbeing and arts and culture and also nature protection.

So I think she'd would really like to just be remembered for doing something good in the world, right?

And really promoting causes that really make a difference in people's lives.

- Definitely, I agree with that.

And for people watching, you can go and hit up Hillsborough, New Jersey, check out Duke Farms, so much to see, learn, and do there.

And thank you so much, Margaret, for joining us and giving us a little bit of a taste into the life of Doris Duke.

- Absolutely.

Thank you so much, Jacqui.

Great to talk to you.

- You too.

For Steve Abubato and myself, thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

NJM Insurance Group.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

United Airlines.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

And by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Globe.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

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