Margaret Olivia Sage

(1828 - 1918)

In 1906 Margaret Olivia Sage inherited $75 million upon the death of her husband, Russell Sage, a financier and railroad baron who opposed philanthropic work and was once convicted of violating lending laws; the following year Sage established a charitable foundation in his name, the early projects of which promoted workers’ compensation and laws against predatory lending. In 1916 Sage opened a women’s college despite her lawyer’s advice against founding a school: “There are enough already.”