--- title: A Secretary Built a Secret $9 Million Fortune by Copying Her Boss's Investments. And Then She Donated It All description: A legal secretary quietly amassed over $9 million through decades of investments has donated most of it to students. Here's how she did it authors: - name: Associated Press url: https://money.com/author/associated-press/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 20 covers: - Education - Business - Identity Theft - Technology former_staff: true published: '2018-05-07T19:58:42.000Z' modified: '2018-05-07T19:58:42.000Z' section: Education tags: - New York - onetime word_count: 288 canonical: https://money.com/sylvia-bloom-hunter-college-scholarship/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A Secretary Built a Secret $9 Million Fortune by Copying Her Boss's Investments. And Then She Donated It All](https://img.money.com/2018/05/gettyimages-563959031.jpg?quality=85&w=1012&h=569&crop=1) (NEW YORK) — A legal secretary who grew up in the Great Depression and quietly amassed over $9 million through decades of investments has donated most of it to needy students. [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/06/nyregion/secretary-fortune-donates.html) reported Monday that $6.24 million from the estate of Sylvia Bloom has been given to the Henry Street Settlement; another $2 million will be split between Hunter College and another scholarship fund to be announced. Bloom grew up in Brooklyn and earned a degree from Hunter at night while working days to make ends meet. In 1947, she joined the firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. "She was a secretary in an era when they ran their boss' lives, including their personal investments," said her niece, Jane Lockshin. "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." Paul Hyams, a human resources executive for the firm who became good friends with Bloom, recalled seeing her trudging out of the subway toward work in the middle of a fierce snowstorm when she was 96. "I said, 'What are you doing here?' and she said, 'Why, where should I be?'" he recalled. She retired around that time, agreeing to move to a senior residence mainly because "she wanted to find a good bridge game," said a cousin, Flora Mogul Bornstein. Bloom died not long after, in 2016. Bloom's late husband, Raymond Margolies, was a firefighter who retired and then became a schoolteacher with a pharmacist career on the side, relatives said. 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