October 28, 2014
Mariah Timms
News Writer
Virginia News
An alumna of Foxcroft School, an all-girls preparatory school near Middleburg, Va., has bequeathed a $40 million gift to the school from her estate. Ruth T. Bedford, a Standard Oil heiress who graduated from Foxcroft in 1932, was also in her time a Red Cross volunteer during the London Blitz, a production hand on Broadway for Rodgers and Hammerstein, raised winning thoroughbred racer and trained as an aviatrix. In recent years, she volunteered at a hospital while living modestly in the area. The size of the donation is more similar to donations to universities than secondary schools, and Foxcroft officials reportedly believe that it is not only one of the largest gifts to an all-girls school ever, but also the largest ever made to a secondary school by a woman. The donation will nearly double the school’s endowment and be used to benefit the 157 students, a quarter of whom come from 15 foreign countries.
