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By 1970 Scheiber was already worth several million dollars, but it was hardly reflected in her life-style. Paint was peeling from her apartment walls. Bookcases were caked with dust. "She was a product of the Depression years," says Fay. Her father suffered substantial losses in the property market. "She felt she had to live on her meager pension and Social Security. She never spent any of it on herself." She kept some money in savings accounts, but Fay encouraged her to invest in money-market funds and tax-exempt bonds. By the early 1980s her cash flow from interest and dividends was more than $200,000 a year, which she used to buy more tax-exempt notes and bonds. These accounted for 30% of her portfolio at the time of her death.
Scheiber had never been promoted at the IRS. In her last seven years there, her salary increased only $150 dollars, from $3,000 in 1936. "She was treated very, very shabbily," says Clark. "She really had to fend for herself in every way. It was really quite a struggle." Hoping to help young women avoid discrimination, Scheiber, raised an Orthodox Jew, decided to donate nearly her entire fortune to two divisions of the Jewish university: Stern College for Women and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her will specified that the funds be used exclusively for scholarships and loans for women. Stern has 840 of the university's 6,200 students. About half of the medical school's 900 students are women.
"Her world was limited to watching over her investments," says Fay. "She was obviously very intelligent and very unhappy," says Lamm, who received a hand-written letter from Scheiber outlining her life and struggles. Lamm is grateful, but, he says, "It would have been so much happier for her if she had done it in her lifetime so she could see the benefits accrued to others."