Patsy Collins

You’re the heir to a broadcasting empire. What do you do with your fortune? Well, if you’re Priscilla “Patsy” Bulitt Collins, you give it away.
Her philanthropy roster was impressive by anyone’s standards. She gave $800,000 to save a four-mile stretch of land along the Yakima River from logging. She and her sister Harriet donated the radio station (98.1 KING-FM) to a nonprofit arts collective in order to keep classical music on the dial. She bought the mansion where her mother grew up and then donated it to the historical society. She even financed a low-income housing project to be built next door.
Her life, while rich with money, was also filled with pain. But Collins countered that pain with a generous spirit. One of her boyfriends died in World War II; in response, Collins donated a landscaped grove to serve as a memorial to those Washington soldiers who died in war. Her father died of cancer, so she paid tribute to him by donating $2 million to the Seattle Public Library Foundation (the library will name its history and biography collection after him).
Collins died on Wednesday of complications from cancer. She was 82.