A small boarding school in northern Virginia is the recipient of the largest gift to a secondary girls' school: a $40 million bequest from a Standard Oil heiress who liked to drive around in an Oldsmobile station wagon.
Ruth Bedford of Westport, Connecticut, died in June at age 99. She volunteered with the Red Cross in England during World War II, worked as a stage manager on Broadway, and was known to enjoy a glass of Scotch.
She had informed her old alma mater, the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, that she planned to remember them in her will, but school administrators were stunned when they learned she had bequeathed $40 million. The gift doubles the school's endowment.
Students will be informed of the gift Tuesday.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
