Sarasota Widow leaves $225M to start foundation

Widow leaves $225M to start foundation

By Bill Hutchinson


Published: Monday, July 28, 2008 at 1:58 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, July 28, 2008 at 2:00 p.m.
SARASOTA - A quarter-billion-dollar bequest from a quiet-living local widow was announced Monday by the principals of a new foundation created in Sarasota to administer the funds.


The Patterson Foundation, which expects to pay out $11 million in grants next year, will likely focus at first on organizations, individuals and special areas of need in the greater Sarasota area.

“It would seem to make sense for us to start with what we know,” said foundation chairman John Berteau, an attorney with Williams Parker Harrison Dietz & Getzen, which set up the trust with Dorothy Patterson 10 years before her death in 2007.

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