96-year-old secretary secretly grew a $9M fortune
By Sarah Jackson
- Jane Lockshin says when she found out her 96-year-old aunt, Sylvia Bloom, had amassed
- a fortune of more than $9 million, she had an “oh my God moment.” Bloom was a legal secretary
- at a New York City law firm for 67 years, until she retired in 2016. She died shortly afterward.
- And it wasn’t until her relatives read her will that they realized her wealth.
- According to the New York Times, Bloom grew her wealth among three brokerage houses
- and 11 banks. How? As a secretary, she would balance her boss’s chequebooks. When they made
- a trade or investment, she would secretly do the same. Again and again. In her will, Bloom said
- some of her fortune was to go to relatives and friends, but the majority was to go toward
- scholarships of Lockshin’s choice for students in need.
- Lockshin spoke to “As It Happens” host Carol Off about Bloom’s legacy. Here is part of that
- conversation:
- How did you react when you learned Sylvia Bloom had a fortune of more than $8
- million?
- It really was an “oh my God” moment. I was flabbergasted. I knew she was comfortable, I
- knew she had enough money to live on, and I knew she wanted to give money to scholarships.
- But I thought it was a few hundred thousand dollars.
- She was a secretary for years and years. How did she amass such wealth?
- You’re too young to know, but she started working at Cleary Gottlieb in 1948. And in that
- era… secretaries did everything for their bosses. They balanced their chequebooks, they wrote
- their cheques, they took their clothes to the dry cleaner, and when her boss wanted to buy
- stocks, he would tell her, “Call my broker and buy AT&T and however many shares.”
- She would call her broker and buy AT&T, only she’d buy a smaller amount of shares.
- She is donating this money to charity. Tell us what she wanted this money to be
- used for?
- She wanted, and wants… the money to be used for scholarships for needy children. She
- went to college for one year and then had to drop out, and I think she dropped out to support
- herself and her family. She finally finished her college degree at night, working full-time. She
- knew how important it was to get an education and how hard it was to get an education if you
- didn’t have any money.
- So these little bits of money that your aunt invested and raised all these millions of
- dollars are going to mean that a whole bunch of people get an education and have their
- lives changed.
- Yes, for the better. You could almost start crying about it, it’s so fabulous. She was a tough
- woman. She was a tough, savvy New Yorker.
- How do you think Sylvia Bloom would react to all the attention she's getting now?
- She’d cringe. She would hate it, but I think she would accept the fact that having this much
- attention paid to her scholarship fund and to the organizations that are getting her funds would
- do good for the organizations.
(Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-full-episode-1.4651457/96-year-old-secretary-secretly-grew-9m-fortune-then-donates-to-students-1.4651864 – text specially adapted for this test).