Legal secretary who kept her wealth a secret donates millions to college scholarship funds

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To the surprise of her family and friends, Sylvia Bloom spent decades making wise investments, leaving her with a $9 million fortune by the time she died in 2016.

The Brooklyn resident was 96 years old when she died, and had only recently retired from her job as a legal secretary. Bloom had spent 67 years with Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and her niece, Jane Lockshin, told The New York Times that her aunt was "a secretary in an era when they ran their boss' lives, including their personal investments. So when the boss would buy a stock, she would make the purchase for him, and then buy the same stock for herself, but in a smaller amount because she was on a secretary's salary."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.