A former schoolteacher and volunteer at the Detroit Institute of Arts gift shop has willed $1.7 million to the institution. Elizabeth Verdow, who passed away in 2014, gave her full estate to the museum, with $1.26 million intended to buy contemporary art paintings and sculpture, and the additional $450,000 set aside for the museum’s endowment. “We were delighted and thrilled,” says museum giving officer Deborah Odette. “I have learned never to underestimate people. Just because someone had a long career as a schoolteacher doesn’t mean they might not have means of amassing wealth, if they invest wisely and carefully and live modestly. She obviously loved her work at the museum.”
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