Oil Heiress’s $40-Million Bequest Stuns Va. Girls’ School

A Standard Oil heiress who died in June at the age of 99 left $40-million to the Middleburg, Va., preparatory school she attended in the 1920s and ‘30s, writes The Washington Post. Officials at the Foxcroft School said they were aware Ruth T. Bedford planned to leave something to the all-girls academy but were stunned by the size of the gift, which will more than double the school’s endowment.

Ms. Bedford, the granddaughter of a Standard Oil director, never married during an adventurous life that saw her earn a pilot’s license, serve with the Red Cross during the London Blitz, and work on Broadway. For the past several decades she lived modestly in Connecticut, giving to education causes and volunteering at a hospital. The gift to Foxcroft, which counts 157 students on a campus in Virginia horse country, is believed to be the largest in dollar terms ever to an all-girls school.