Genevive Via Cava was a New Jersey-born educator who spent the majority of her life serving her students. She passed away in 2011 at the age of 88.

For the most of her tenure as a teacher, Via Cava taught special education. While she was reclusive in her personal life, she dramatically changed when she was with her students.

She was a no-nonsense, no-frills woman who was generous and kind to children, according to her friend Richard Jablonski, who said this in an interview.

She maintained a straightforward life at home. She kept a tight budget, clipped coupons to save money, and secretly accumulated a sizable fortune!

Via Cava and Richard Jablonski had been close friends for 30 years, but Richard was unaware that she had been amassing such a sizable sum of money throughout that time.

People who knew her would have assumed she barely made ends meet given the kind of basic lifestyle she lived since he mentioned that she wore the same outfits every day.

She had no surviving family or close friends when she passed away, thus Richard Jablonski received ownership of her home. The house, which was worth over $1 million, is now occupied by Jablonski’s son and grandchildren.

Additionally, she had left the school district a sizeable sum of money. After 7 years, the school district finally received the $1 million she had left for them, but the wait had been well worth it.

Emanuele Triggiano, the superintendent of the Dumont School District, remarked that she must have had a strong bond with the community and the pupils.

The largest number of any gathering we have ever seen was in the tens of thousands, but never anything like this.

She had enough money saved up to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, but she chose to set it away so her students could use it.

And the school system has made good use of it. A student with special education requirements who wishes to further their studies can anticipate receiving a scholarship of $25,000 per year.