By Dale M. King
BOCA RATON – Henrietta, Countess de Hoernle doesn’t have the attitude of a philanthropic icon. Nor does she make an issue about the millions she has donated or the 40-plus buildings that bear her name or that of her late husband, Count Adolph de Hoernle.
And she’d rather play bridge than talk about her upcoming 100th birthday. “I hope I make it,” she joked in her typically jovial manner.
But the community in general, and the organization that gave her and her husband their titles, have joined together to celebrate the Countess, her legacy of giving and her longtime support of Boca Raton. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller Commandery of Florida invites the community to join together to honor the Countess in several ways on her 100th Birthday, Monday, Sept. 24. Festivities include a formal gala presented by the Order of St. John to benefit local charities, a communitywide “Red, White & Boca-Blue” Countess Appreciation Day and the presentation of what is planned to be a record-breaking birthday card.
Managing her charitable work from home since 1981 without a staff, and often working into the early morning hours, the Countess de Hoernle has given away more than $40 million of her personal funds to charities in Boca Raton, Palm Beach County, Broward County and New York. She served on 16 boards each year for more than 30 different charities in her lifetime. She serves as an inspiring role model of philanthropy with wisdom and grace.
“I feel that people who have money should give to the ones who can’t help themselves,” she told the Boca Raton Tribune in a telephone interview.
Even as she approaches the century mark, the Countess is still giving. She recently donated funding to the construction of a pavilion for veterans at St. Andrews North, adjacent to her home. Before she became involved, it was to be just “a bench and a flag,” she said. “That was not enough. So I am building a pavilion for the veterans so they can have parties there. They can have food and play games and meet friends.”
The three-times-married Countess said the facility will be named for her second husband, Jeff Gass, a veteran himself who served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was later put in charge of all the documents for the Nuremburg trial. He died at age 42 from the after-effects of malaria related to his service in the South Pacific.
She said she initially knew the Count “as a friend,” having met at a social club in New York. But when her second husband took sick and was expected to die, “I had to get up and get going and he [Count] sort of supervised the children while I was gone. That brought us closer together.” She has two daughters and nine grandchildren; the Count had no children when they married.
The Countess recalled that she and Count de Hoernle both arrived in the United States within a few years of each other. Born Henrietta Rach in Karlsruhe, Germany, she immigrated to the U.S. at age 18 aboard the S.S. Pennland in 1931 to live with her grandparents in Jackson Heights in Queens, NY and became an “American by choice” – a point she stresses. After being twice widowed, she married engineer and entrepreneur Adolph, Count de Hoernle (who immigrated to the U.S. in 1926) in 1950.
While living in Bronxville, N.Y., the Countess began volunteering at Lawrence Hospital’s thrift store. While there, she noticed many plaques in the hospital stating, “This room is donated by… Inspired by the generosity of others, she encouraged her husband to do the same. Their first gift was to provide music scholarships to singers through the Liederkranz Club, a Manhattan social club founded by German-Americans to promote social and instrumental music.
Following the sale of the Count’s company, Stewart Stamping Corp. of Yonkers, N.Y., in 1965 and after considerable world travel (including numerous world cruises) and many visits to the area, the couple retired to Boca Raton in 1981 – convinced that Boca was, indeed, the “Jewel of The Gold Coast.” Renewed commitment to her charitable work became their “new” life in Florida.
The Countess told the Tribune that seeing her name on a building she donated money to “is more of an incentive for others to give. It’s a matter of thinking about others. Give your community your very best.”