Meet your MoCo Neighbors - the Rales'

As part of a new series in my blog, I've created MEET YOUR MOCO NEIGHBORS.  These posts will feature prominent MoCo residents that live amongst us mortals.  While driving on the winding roads of Glen Road today, I noticed some construction work at the Glenstone Museum.  I first learned about the museum when responding to an estate manager ad for the large estate (I obviously got no response back).  I love art and architecture just as much as the next guy.  Heck, I even entered college as an architecture major at Cornell.  Two semesters, countless sleepless nights, a rat infested studio, and hints of wine tasting class, I transferred out of architecture and into hotel management!

Mitchell Rales is a Bethesda native who graduated from Walt Whitman High School in the 70s.  Along with his brother, Steven, Mitchell founded Danaher, a publicly traded manufacturing company in 1984 and ultimately became billionaires.

The brainchild of Mitchell and Emily Rales, the Glenstone Museum is an ultra reclusive private art museum sits on an old fox hunting ground spanning over 150 acres.  The billionaires are now expanding their museum over several buildings in order to keep the museum open 5 days a week.  Click here to read the recent NYTimes article about their new endeavor, another here, or an older Washington Post article describing hang ups on the expansion.  Or click here to learn more about the Glenstone Foundation.