A Professor's Final Gift to Her Students: Her Life Savings

[Zorro]

Cris Hassold, a professor at New College of Florida for 50 years, left a mark on her 31 favorite students. “I think about her almost every day,” one said.

In August 2021, a mysterious package from Sarasota, Fla., showed up in Nicole Archer’s mailbox in Manhattan.

Dr. Archer hurried upstairs to her cramped Chelsea apartment with the thick envelope in hand and tore it open at her dining table, revealing a legal document she had wondered about for months.

She knew that a beloved college professor had bequeathed her something in her will. She was expecting a modest gift — enough money for a fancy dinner, perhaps, or one of the beaded bracelets the professor liked to make by hand.

But when Dr. Archer, 49, saw the number on the last page — $100,000 — she thought there must be a misplaced decimal point.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/us/cris-hassold-professor-new-college-will.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GU8.Y58t.qowmtkNA_zkD&smid=url-share