Teacher's penny-pinching pays off in $2M gift

[February 05, 2009]  CLEVELAND (AP) -- A penny-pinching math teacher who never earned more than $40,000 per year in salary has left $2 million to her Ohio alma mater. Laura Bickimer died in April at age 93 after making plans to leave the bulk of her estate to Baldwin-Wallace College near Cleveland. She graduated from the school in 1936 with a 4.0 average.

Bickimer, who never married, retired from teaching in 1972 and lived out her life in a nursing home. Years ago, she wrote in an alumni questionnaire that she preferred washing her clothes in an old-fashioned wringer and tried each day to perform some act of kindness.

Bickimer never earned more than $40,000 in annual salary, but inherited wealth from family. The school will name a $50,000 scholarship after her.

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Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com/

[Associated Press]

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