THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411180011
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Describing his job to disburse the fortune left by Celia Stern of Norfolk, attorney Peter G. Decker said he felt akin to television's mysterious philanthropist ``The Millionaire'' of years ago.
This is one case where the real thing has it all over drama. While the TV millions were make-believe, Ms. Stern's real dollars will enrich countless lives.
After winning a battle over her will, Decker got control of $5.5 million in cash and property, all to go to charities. All of the money has been delivered or committed to Hampton Roads colleges, environmental groups, churches and synagogues, medical-research groups, agencies serving children, and others.
In some instances, beneficiaries requested the money; in others, Decker, like TV's millionaire, surprised them.
Recipients of the Stern bequest and the planned uses are amazingly diverse - from $210,000 to upgrade the cancer-treatment unit at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters to $1,000 for the Ward's Corner Little League; from $250,000 for Hebrew Academy of Tidewater in Virginia Beach to $75,000 for Norfolk-based Physicians for Peace to send a medical team to Yemen.
All of this is possible because of a frail, very private woman who rarely ventured from her Virginia Beach condominium. She was never married and had no immediate family.
Along with her late brother, she had run a restaurant-supply business for many years in Norfolk. She died in December 1992.
Then began a tussle over two wills. A Norfolk man who had befriended Ms. Stern claimed that he held the later one, but a judge ruled it a fake. That upheld Decker's control of the money.
Decker, himself known for extensive charity work, says deciding where the money should go enabled him to ``do more good than I have ever done.'' Than most of the rest of us, too. by CNB