Posted on 08/14/2004 1:48:30 PM PDT by kattracks
OTTSVILLE, Pa. - Teresa Heinz Kerry once hinted at tensions with her first-born son, a 37-year-old blacksmith who seeks an anonymous life with his wife and child in rural Pennsylvania.
But if H. John Heinz IV is noticeably absent from his stepfather John Kerry (news - web sites)'s presidential campaign and in news photos of the high-wattage Heinz-Kerry clan, his activist interests — the environment, youth, local programs — mirror much of the focus of his family's $1.5 billion Heinz Endowment charities.
Heinz Kerry's eldest son lives with his physician wife, Kristann, on a wooded 163-acre farm near Philadelphia, refusing all inquiries about Kerry's campaign, the Heinz foundation or his own work and ambitions.
He operates a small Buddhist high school for troubled teens nearby, and makes reproduction ironwork in a studio on his secluded property, land he has conserved so it can never be developed.
On a much larger scale, Teresa Heinz Kerry has steered money to the environment, education and local art and cultural groups as chairwoman of the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Endowments.
Heinz Kerry told The Washington Post in a 2002 profile that John started "hating her" after his daughter Astrid — her only grandchild — was born in 2000. She did not elaborate and her eldest son did not comment afterward. But he continues to serve with her on the board of one of the Heinz charities.
John Heinz surfaced briefly in the news at a 2001 cocktail gala for a Heinz enrichment program for Pittsburgh children, warranting a small notice in a Pittsburgh newspaper, but generally asks friends and family to help guard his privacy. Heinz Kerry plans to honor that request throughout the campaign, a spokeswoman said.
Heinz, a handsome, lean man with closely cropped dark hair, declined an interview with The Associated Press.
"We're just a little community school and obviously it doesn't do us any favors if people find out about it," said Peter Ryan, who with Heinz co-founded Tinicum Art and Science, a Buddhist alternative school, in Bucks County about five years ago.
Several districts send students to the school, which mixes a classic liberal arts curriculum with Zen precepts on "mindfulness" or self-awareness and electives ranging from martial arts to yoga to metalwork.
Former neighbor Michael Carr, a lawyer, represented Heinz when he sought township approval for the school.
"My recollection was that he had done some ... work for the family foundation, and that he was interested in trying to get involved in some hands-on educational programs," Carr said.
The hangar-like school, a former woodworking factory, sits on an undeveloped field with giant sunflowers at the entrance. Inside, meditative music plays and a sign asks visitors to remove their shoes. "They've never caused a bit of trouble," said neighbor Glenna Higgins, 84.
In Boston last month, Heinz skipped the family photo op at the Democratic National Convention, leaving his two brothers, Andre and Chris, to share the stage with stepsisters Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry. He has no announced plans to join the campaign. "He's a very serious person, and he does not like his privacy meddled with," his mother has said.
Heinz was 24 when his father, Republican U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III, died in April 1991 along with six others in a helicopter-small plane collision above a suburban Philadelphia elementary school. Already a trained blacksmith, Heinz soon afterward moved to Virginia, where he worked for a year as a volunteer blacksmith in Colonial Williamsburg.
"He's a great guy," said shop master Ken Schwarz, who remains a Heinz friend. Heinz sells his ironwork though a Web site.
Many people in Ottsville, population 3,645, seem unaware a Heinz heir lives among them. "We've been here 10 or 12 years and we've never heard of him," said John Roberts, who owns the Ottsville Inn.
That's not unusual in Bucks County, a longtime haven for writers, artists and others seeking a retreat from New York, about an hour away, or Philadelphia. The area's full- or part-time residents have included authors James Michener and Pearl Buck and the activist Abbie Hoffman.
"We have lots and lots of people that are famous or very prosperous or in some ways notable," said R. Foster Winans, director of The Writers Room of Bucks County, which has received small donations from John Heinz and the Heinz Family Foundation. Like most people who know Heinz, he declined to discuss him.
"They could live in Princeton, they could live in the Hamptons, but they live here because we leave them alone," Winans said.
I did not know that there was tension between Teresa and her eldest son. Thanks for posting.
Gotta admire the guy for walking the walk.
That's sad.
"Heinz Kerry told The Washington Post in a 2002 profile that John started "hating her" after his daughter Astrid — her only grandchild — was born in 2000."
There is something very wrong here. I wouldn't dare speculate, it could be so many things, there could be wrong on all sides. But there is something wrong, and tragic here.
I cant imagine a son hating his mother, but then Momma-T seems easy to hate. Perhaps he see's she was married to his dad for the money. Then took that to his fathers enemies.
Lil' Johnny sounds like quite a guy.
Ottsville, Pa.
Also home of Krieghoff International Shotguns.
http://www.krieghoff.com/
It's a wonderful neighborhood!
Exactly, and I would imagine a man such as this hasn't got the time, or inclination, to put up with the likes of Kerry.
Interesting. He was an adult when his father died and his career choice was unusual for a very wealthy heir. And of her three sons, Teresa has only one grandchild, John IV's four year-old daughter. And Teresa (a dubious source) claims that John IV began "hating" her around the time of her grandchild's birth. And John IV runs a small Buddhist high school in addition to blacksmithing.
No matter how you slice and dice it, that is one weird family. It's like watching the Carter family redone as the Beverly Hillbillies.
My thoughts also.
He operates a small Buddhist high school for troubled teens nearby, and makes reproduction ironwork in a studio on his secluded property, land he has conserved so it can never be developed.
Typical behavior for rich Pennsylvanians. Once they get theirs, they lock up the property any way they can.
Same thing is happening here in Lancaster, PA with the corrupt, socialistic Land Trust.
He wants to be left alone
But that's not easy when you're H. John Heinz IV, the first son of a billionaire and the stepson of a nominee for president
Photos
John Heinz IV
BY MARY VOBORIL
STAFF WRITER
August 12, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/ny-p2two3925354aug12,0,2488051.story?coll=ny-entertainment-bigpix
That's not too zen-like to hate your mom is it? Hmm... wonder what the deal is there?
I'm not sure I understand. He owns property, and has chose to keep it. If I by a a piece of land and do as I wish to keep it, how is that bad or socialistic?
Odd family regardless...
In return, he gets (about) 50% lower property taxes on his 163 acres.
It is an combination of enviro-madness and a rather cynical ploy by PA to increase land values by locking up developable land, forcing the rest of the land prices to go up.
Here in Lancaster, a decent .25 acre lot can go for $40,000 and higher. There are 55,000 acres in Lancaster County alone that are under conservation.
ping
Or if the kids wear them in metal shop.
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