A Gift

A very touching story in today's Post, about a man few ever knew, who in death was beyond generous.

Family Matters of Greater Washington is set to hold a splashy news conference Wednesday at the National Press Club to announce that [Richard] Herman, who died in November at 100, left the organization 60 percent of his vast estate — $28 million, which the group says is one of the largest gifts ever to a local social service organization...

Over the years, [cousin] Betsy Paull had occasionally prodded him to add a few more zeros to his modest donation because she knew of the nonprofit group’s work in helping teenage mothers and low-income seniors and sending disadvantaged kids to camp. But why — as someone who never had a family of his own or even displayed a special fondness for children — Herman chose to give such a large sum to Family Matters remains, like the man himself, a bit of a mystery.

Family Matters administrators knew they were named as beneficiaries of the estate but were unaware of the extent of the gift until trust officials contacted them after Herman’s death.

“I started crying. I dropped the phone, and I fell to my knees on the ground in my office,” said Tonya Jackson Smallwood, president and chief executive of the group, which is headquartered downtown. She said she left the trust officer on the line for a good five minutes as she tried to compose herself.

“I was crying in part because he had passed . . . and in part because I was aware he was leaving us something significant in his will,” she said.

The gift, which is more than twice the charity’s annual budget of $12.5 million, will have a major impact on its efforts to help the city’s neediest residents, Smallwood said. (The Washington Post Co. is a longtime supporter of the organization’s summer camp.) The group also plans to establish an arts program for youths and seniors in Herman’s name.