Mary Bloom Hyman taught at Loyola University Maryland for 26 years and was a beloved member of the faculty. It now turns out she was the institution’s largest staff benefactor and, in fact, is one of Baltimore’s most substantial givers.
Tim Armbruster, former head of the Morris Goldseker Foundation and a friend of Mary Hyman and her husband, financial planner Sigmund M. Hyman, said this week that the extent of her largesse is only now being revealed after her Sept. 23 death at age 97.
“Her estate is estimated at between $15 and $16 million,” he said. “Most likely $16 million.”
“Mary was witty and sharp with an insightful sense of humor,” said Armbruster. “She was strong, with an eclectic intellect, an avid reader and was especially knowledgeable on the fine and performing arts, science education, politics and higher education.”
This holiday season, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Walters Art Museum, Franklin & Marshall College, Goucher College, the Maryland Science Center, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Johns Hopkins Department of Genetic Medicine and The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore all have reason to be thankful for this woman’s generosity.
She was drawn to support programs such as the BSO’s OrchKids, the musical education effort that targets talented city children at Booker T. Washington, the Belair-Edison and Highlandtown schools, among others.
She was raised on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and was a Goucher College and Johns Hopkins University graduate. Her interest in science began in high school during biology class and continued to grow throughout her college studies. At Loyola University, she was coordinator for science education programs and the coordinator for the Institute for Child Care Education. She was a former education director for the Maryland Science Center.
She was an avid art collector, as was her husband, and acquired American paintings from the early years of the last century. They were an amazing Baltimore couple.
Sig Hyman, who grew up in Reservoir Hill, founded and ran his highly successful financial planning business from an 1877 Victorian-era building he owned at the corner of Charles and Saratoga streets. His V-shaped office, on the top floor, was at that precise corner, and he filled it with an art collection you don’t expect to see housed in a pension planning business. He was an early advocate of saving for retirement.
His office had important works by Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and John Sloan, a New York painter who caught rough and tumble urban scenes.
Mary Hyman gave more than 100 works to the BMA at her death. Her gift included prints by Mary Cassatt and Pablo Picasso, drawings by John Singer Sargent and Marguerite Zorach, and paintings by Arthur B. Davis and Leon Kroll.
She was a natural entertainer and worked alongside her husband as they built the S.M. Hyman Co., beginning in 1956.
He became a close friend of former Ravens owner Art Modell, and in 1956, when the financial planning industry was in its infancy, founded Pension Planners of Baltimore.
Hyman, who was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, prospered and opened offices in New York and London. He remained a steadfast Baltimorean.
As he became involved with the financial aspects of sports — in particular the Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams, while they were owned by Carroll Rosenbloom — he befriended film director-producer Otto Preminger, actors Henry Fonda, Paul Newman and Tony Randall, and playwright Neil Simon. He also was a pension consultant to the city of Baltimore before selling his business in 1980. He died in 2002. He was also part of the group who tried to bring an NFL franchise to Baltimore after the Colts’ departure to Indianapolis. He died in 2002.
“Mary was deeply caring of her friends and colleagues,” said Armbruster.
And she had a soft spot for Baltimore and its institutions.
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