Woman Wills $21M to Three Groups

PHILADELPHIA (AP) â€” A woman from a prominent family has willed $21 million to three institutions that never had any contact with her. <br><br>Florence Foerderer, who died Nov. 12, 1999 at the age of

Thursday, January 4th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PHILADELPHIA (AP) â€” A woman from a prominent family has willed $21 million to three institutions that never had any contact with her.

Florence Foerderer, who died Nov. 12, 1999 at the age of 73, gave $7 million each to the Philadelphia Zoo, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf in Washington, D.C. The zoo's gift is the largest in its history.

Foerderer was the heiress to a fortune made by her grandfather, Robert H. Foerderer, a Philadelphia industrialist.

``It's one of these fabulous Philadelphia stories, where families that have been part of the Philadelphia scene for so many years continue to be this amazingly generous,'' Don Haskin, a zoo official, told the Philadelphia Inquirer for Thursday editions.

Foerderer was born and raised in the city's Germantown section, later working as a social worker in Virginia and living in a log cabin in Pennsylvania where she raised goats and roosters. Interested in animal habitats, she started assembling land for a nature sanctuary.

No one involved knows exactly why Foerderer left behind the gifts. Family members said she was devoted to animals, loved children, and vehemently opposed discrimination against the handicapped.