She was generous, and she knew how to manage farmland. Her death at age 93 has left an inheritance of an estimated $37.5 million in the laps of three unsuspecting beneficiaries.
Ms. Atkins, who was 93 when she died in 2012, left an estimated $37.5-million trust to be split equally among three institutions: Columbia Congregational Church UCC, in South Dakota; Northern State University; and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
A $12.3 million surprise gift from a South Dakota farmer and businesswoman is the largest to the University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences, U officials announced Thursday.
The University of Minnesota will receive more than $12 million from the estate of Millicent Atkins, a successful farmer and businesswoman who owned prime farm land near Aberdeen, S.D. Atkins, born in 1919, lived most of her life near Columbia, a small town east of Aberdeen.