The year before, the New England Patriots had caused a stir during the NFL draft when they selected Nebraska defensive tackle Christian Peter, whose record of tackles only slightly exceeded those of his sexual assaults. The story goes that Mrs. Kraft was in the Stadium Club at the old Foxboro Stadium when a reporter mentioned the pick and showed her an item about Peter in his Pro Football Weekly guide.
Mrs. Kraft was appalled. Snatching the guide from the reporter's hand, she marched through the locked doors and into the private area of the stadium, presumably to have a few choice words with her husband, Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The next day, Peter was released by the Patriots.
The story was widely reported and I expressed my admiration for what she had done when I interviewed Mrs. Kraft. Ever the loyal wife, she insisted that her husband "came to that decision himself." I asked if he had any help.
"Robert doesn't need any help," she said firmly.
I didn't believe a word, but I admired her tremendously for defending a principle and deflecting the credit to her husband. Those who knew this great lady say it was typical, that her strong passion for doing the right thing was instilled by her parents, noted Worcester philanthropists Jacob and Frances Hiatt.
Mrs. Kraft was born in Worcester and attended Chandler Junior High and Bancroft School. She was raised on Terrace Drive, around the corner from her old friend Michael D. Sleeper, who yesterday remembered Mrs. Kraft as a "very sweet, caring woman" who was intent on giving back to the community.
"She was incredibly philanthropic," said Sleeper, CEO of Imperial Distributors of Worcester and Auburn. "She was a woman of great values. She came from an extraordinarily thoughtful family."
Sleeper wasn't surprised at Mrs. Kraft's quiet involvement in the Peter draft.
"She may have appeared to be in the background, but I have to believe that her influence was powerful," he said. "She was so grounded. She didn't want to be in the spotlight, but she always wanted to do the right thing."
She hadn't lived in Worcester for many years, but she left her mark here and in the Boston area, where she was dedicated to many causes and considered by some as the behind-the-scenes conscience of the Patriots.
Mrs. Kraft's father, Jacob Hiatt, grew up in Lithuania and settled in Worcester in 1935. He became president of the E.F. Dodge Paper Box Corp. in Leominster and stayed on when it was bought by Whitney Box. The company is now the Rand-Whitney Group, which Robert Kraft bought in 1972.
She told me she met her future husband in a Boston restaurant when she was a student at Brandeis and he was attending Columbia.
"I was with a date and he was with some friends," she said. "As I was leaving, he sort of winked at me and I guess I sort of winked back. Then he found out my name and the next day he found me in the Brandeis library."
They married in 1963 and had four sons. They also amassed a large fortune, and Mrs. Kraft immersed herself in the hands-on business of giving lots of it away - well over $120 million, by many accounts.
"It's easy to write a check," she once said. "But this is what I look at as what my occupation is. I don't know how to play bridge, nor do I want to learn how to play bridge. This is what I do."
She managed the Robert and Myra Kraft Family Foundation and was president of the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation, which contributed millions of dollars to charities in the United States and Israel. She became the first woman, in 1955, to chair the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. She served as chair of United Way and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies. She was a board member of the American Repertory Theatre and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Despite her wealth, Mrs. Kraft never forgot her roots. Sleeper said he bumped into her in Cambridge and she insisted that her husband get out of the car to meet her old friend. He said he last saw her a year ago; she looked a bit frail but he didn't know she was ill.
Recently, Mrs. Kraft helped start the NFL's "Kick Cancer" campaign and the Kraft family donated $20 million to Partners HealthCare System, part of which was earmarked for women's cancers research. In keeping with her legacy, Mrs. Kraft didn't widely spread news of her own cancer, but she was generous in her desire to help other victims.
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