This is giving to prove a point. And it has left a small but intriguing legacy of flamboyant philanthropy. But much of this kind of giving is directed to sympathetic underdogs and strays. Francine Katzenbogen, lottery winner and cat lover, constructed a six-room, luxury home for her 20 strays. Katzenbogen, it seems, was acutely allergic to cats, which may have hastened her end.
Eccentric gifts can also reveal a donor's dark side.
A former government employee, who spent most of his career behind the Iron Curtain, left a southern university property that included a sealed, underground bunker. Others find revenge the gift that keeps on giving. An alumnus from one college made a donation to help construct faculty offices to honor a professor who had flunked him, guaranteeing that every time the professor passed the plaque he would be reminded of the student's success. But bull semen, Virginia Tech accepts enthusiastically. Experts find an important point at the intersection of philanthropy and eccentricity.