They Gave Millions To Charity

In life, they were humble SECRETARIES, TEACHERS, and JANITORS. When they died, they were richer than anyone knew—and they GAVE MILLIONS TO CHARITY

- Juliana LaBianca

Whenever Jane Lockshin went out to lunch with her elderly aunt Sylvia, she made a point to pick up the tab. After all, Sylvia Bloom was a modest secretary, a widow of more than a decade who lived in a one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment and took the subway everywhere, including to her job at a Manhattan law firm. She worked there— full-time—until she was 96. Simply put, Lockshin didn’t want Aunt Sylvia to blow her budget on lunch.

So when Bloom died in 2016, at 97, it was something of a shock to discover that she’d left behind a multimillion-dollar estate. Almost as shocking: She had chosen to give $8.2 million to charity. Six million dollars went to educational programs at the Henry Street Settlement, a social services organization in New York City. An additional $2 million went to scholarship funds, including at Bloom’s alma mater, Hunter College. “She had millions,” says Lockshin, “and no one suspected it.”

Bloom’s bequest to the Settlement, the largest in its 126-year history, will help fund a program for disadvantaged students. “The gift has been transformative not just because of the good we’ll be able to do with it,” says David Garza, the agency’s executive director, “but because of the selflessness and the humility behind it.”