THE HEIRS OF THE McWHORTER FAMILY TRUST

Patrons Statement of Governance, Education & Stewardship

There are inheritances that can be measured in land, securities, works of art, jewels, houses, archives, and institutions.

And there are inheritances that cannot be placed upon a balance sheet.

Faith. Character. Education. Taste. Stewardship. Memory. Love.

The purpose of the McWhorter Family Trust is to preserve both.

Founded upon a Catholic Christian foundation, the Trust is conceived as a multigenerational instrument of stewardship: a means by which the cultural patrimony, humanitarian commitments, educational ambitions, family archives, and other assets entrusted to the McWhorter name may be protected and carried forward.

Its governing philosophy is expressed simply:

By way of trust and grace, through faith, with love.

The Trust is intended to remain under the stewardship of a suitably qualified male member of the McWhorter heritage, selected according to the family’s established principles of character, faith, judgment, education, responsibility, and devotion to the common good. The designation of His Principis Maximus HPM represents within the Family’s ceremonial tradition the principal male steward entrusted with this responsibility.

This is not intended merely as authority.

It is a charge.

The person entrusted with the stewardship of the Family Trust must understand that an inheritance is not permission to consume what previous generations preserved. It is an obligation to preserve, strengthen, and improve it for those who have not yet arrived.

THE CHILDREN

Among the most important considerations of any family trust are the children for whom its continuity is ultimately intended.

The present generation of McWhorter heirs includes Scout Aslan McWhorter, daughter; Daelyn Weaver-McWhorter, beloved stepdaughter and member of the family by affection, relationship, and shared life; and Cass Karter McWhorter, son.

Daelyn’s relationship to the McWhorter name shall be regarded with particular dignity. As a stepdaughter, she is not presumed to inherit the McWhorter name by blood or legal descent; should she one day freely elect to take the McWhorter name, that decision shall be received as a personal act of belonging and affection rather than an obligation imposed upon her.

The family name is strongest when it is chosen with love and carried with honor.

For all three children, the hope of the Trust is therefore not merely that they inherit property.

It is that they inherit capacity.

Capacity to think.

Capacity to create.

Capacity to recognize beauty.

Capacity to govern.

Capacity to distinguish permanence from fashion.

And, above all, capacity to understand that privilege carries responsibility.

THE EDUCATION OF AN HEIR

The education contemplated for the heirs is intentionally broader than conventional academic achievement.

They should encounter the fine arts, architecture, history, literature, philosophy, music, religion, conservation, diplomacy, economics, and the traditions of great institutions.

They should know the museum not simply as a place where beautiful objects hang upon walls, but as an institution through which civilization remembers itself.

They should know the Louvre, the Frick Collection, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the great collections of London, New York, Paris, Monaco, and Switzerland; the gardens, châteaus, galleries, archives, libraries, and historic houses through which generations have preserved their cultural inheritance.

They should understand Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin not merely as luxury houses, but as examples of craftsmanship, design, heritage, horology, and the transmission of specialized knowledge across generations.

They should understand Ferrari and Porsche not merely as automobiles, but as expressions of engineering, design, competition, mechanical excellence, and the pursuit of mastery.

And they should understand that the finest things are not necessarily the most expensive things.

They are the things made exceptionally well.

MUSIC

Music should occupy a particular place within the education of the heirs.

They should be given the opportunity to study piano and string instruments, to understand orchestral music and the symphony, and to experience the discipline that comes from learning an instrument properly.

The tradition of Steinway & Sons offers one example of what this education can represent: craftsmanship joined with musical culture.

And Carnegie Hall represents something larger still the extraordinary possibility that disciplined preparation can eventually enter a room where generations of musicians have already left their mark.

The children should hear orchestras.

They should hear chamber music.

They should understand opera, ballet, theater, and the traditions of live performance.

They should know the American Ballet Theatre and the great American and European theatrical institutions not simply as entertainment, but as living repositories of artistic discipline.

EQUESTRIANISM

The horse should also have a place within the education of the family.

Equestrianism, dressage, polo, jumping, and horsemanship teach lessons that cannot be learned entirely from books.

A horse requires patience.

It requires discipline without cruelty, confidence without arrogance, and communication without words.

The child learns that command is not the same thing as control.

That lesson has relevance far beyond the stable.

The family should therefore have familiarity with the great traditions of equestrian sport, including polo, show jumping, skiing, and the broader sporting culture surrounding historic estates and European country life.

DISCIPLINE OF BODY AND MIND

The heirs should also encounter fencing, skiing, riding, dance, ballet, and other disciplines that cultivate physical confidence, composure, coordination, and self-command.

The purpose is not perfection.

It is formation.

A properly educated heir should be comfortable entering a museum, a concert hall, a riding arena, a boardroom, a university, a diplomatic room, or a historic house without feeling that any of these worlds belongs entirely to someone else.

THE GREAT CITIES

Their education should be international.

New York. London. Paris. Rome. Monaco. Switzerland.

These places represent different traditions of civilization, finance, art, architecture, diplomacy, fashion, music, scholarship, and preservation.

The children should know the difference between visiting a place and understanding it.

New York should teach ambition.

London, continuity.

Paris, beauty and intellectual life.

Rome, antiquity and faith.

Monaco, the peculiar intersection of tradition, wealth, and international society.

Switzerland, discretion, precision, mountains, and stewardship.

The purpose of travel is therefore not merely to collect destinations.

It is to cultivate perspective.

PRESERVATION

The McWhorter Family Trust is intended to safeguard cultural patrimony through museums, collections, archives, botanical gardens, conservation initiatives, historic properties, châteaus, educational institutions, and other cultural partnerships.

The children should understand why these things matter.

A painting can survive its painter.

A building can survive its architect.

A garden can survive its gardener.

A manuscript can survive its author.

And a family can survive its founders.

But only if someone accepts responsibility for the inheritance.

THE MUSEUM

The long term aspiration of a family museum or collection should therefore never be reduced to possession.

The purpose of collecting is to study, preserve, interpret, and transmit.

The Louvre, the Frick Collection, the Met, and the great museums of the world provide enduring examples of this principle.

A family collection, at its highest conception, becomes an archive of judgment.

What did we believe was worth preserving?

What did we learn?

What did we discover?

What did we leave for those who came after us?

Those questions should eventually belong to the heirs.

A FATHER’S INSTRUCTION

To Scout, to Daelyn, and to Cass:

You are not being asked to become copies of the generation before you.

You are being given the opportunity to become worthy successors to it.

Learn the history.

Learn the arts.

Learn the horse.

Learn music.

Learn business.

Learn philanthropy.

Learn conservation.

Learn how beautiful things are made, how institutions are governed, how wealth is preserved, and how power ought to be restrained by conscience.

Travel widely.

Read deeply.

Go to museums when nobody is watching.

Sit through the entire symphony.

Learn the names of the artists.

Learn why the old buildings were built the way they were.

Stand before great works of art long enough to stop asking whether you like them and begin asking why they endured.

And never confuse refinement with superiority.

The purpose of education is not to place oneself above others.

It is to become sufficiently capable to serve something larger than oneself.

THE TRUST AND ITS FUTURE

The McWhorter Family Trust is ultimately intended to safeguard a constellation of interests extending across faith, family, education, fine art, equestrianism, music, theater, ballet, museums, architecture, real estate, conservation, botanical gardens, historic preservation, philanthropy, and cultural stewardship.

Its greatest asset, however, will never be a building, a painting, a horse, a jewel, a security, or a bank account.

It will be the character of the people entrusted with them.

The hope is that each generation will leave the inheritance more intelligent, more beautiful, more useful, and more faithfully preserved than it found it.

And so the governing principle remains:

By way of trust and grace,
through faith,
with love.

For the children are not merely beneficiaries of what came before.

They are the future custodians of what comes next.

McWhorter Family Trust
Faith • Family • Education • Art • Stewardship • Preservation • Conservation

New York • London • Paris • Rome • Monaco • Switzerland