A LEGAL secretary who grew up in the Great Depression and quietly amassed over $US9 million ($12 million) through decades of investments has donated most of it to needy students.

The New York Times reported overnight that $US6.24 million ($8 million) from the estate of Sylvia Bloom has been given to the Henry Street Settlement; another $US2 million ($2.6 million) will be split between New York City’s Hunter College and another scholarship fund to be announced. Bloom grew up in Brooklyn and earned a degree from Hunter at night while working days to make ends meet.

In 1947, she joined the firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

“She was a secretary in an era when they ran their boss’ lives, including their personal investments,” said her niece, Jane Lockshin.

“So when the boss would buy a stock, she would make the purchase for him, and then buy the same stock for herself, but in a smaller amount because she was on a secretary’s salary.” Paul Hyams, a human resources executive for the firm who became good friends with Bloom, recalled seeing her trudging out of the subway toward work in the middle of a fierce snowstorm when she was 96.

“I said, ‘What are you doing here?’ and she said, ‘Why, where should I be?”’ he recalled.

She retired around that time, agreeing to move to a senior residence mainly because “she wanted to find a good bridge game,” said a cousin, Flora Mogul Bornstein.

Bloom died not long after, in 2016.

Bloom’s late husband, Raymond Margolies, was a firefighter who retired and then became a schoolteacher with a pharmacist career on the side, relatives said. Lockshin said it’s “very possible” that not even he knew the size of his independent-minded wife’s fortune.