Sylvia Bloom

Sylvia Bloom was a remarkable New Yorker born in 1919 to Eastern European immigrant parents. Despite the hardships of the Great Depression, she pursued education and began working as a secretary at the prestigious law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in 1947. Bloom cleverly invested her modest salary by secretly mirroring the investment decisions of the lawyers she worked for, amassing a fortune estimated at over $9 million by the time of her death in 2016. Bloom's legacy is highlighted by her generous posthumous donations, including a historic $6.24 million to the Henry Street Settlement, aimed at providing educational opportunities for underprivileged youth, reflecting her own values of education and support for those in need.