Carol B. Ferry; Philanthropist Backed Liberal Causes
Carol Bernstein Ferry, 76, who gave millions to support liberal causes including the Black Panthers, opposition to the Vietnam War and prisoner rights, died June 9 at a nursing home in Rye, N.Y.
Ferry, an advocate of legalized euthanasia who was herself terminally ill with failing lungs and a tumor in her abdomen, took her own life with an overdose of sleeping pills as family members looked on.
Born Carol Underwood in Syracuse, N.Y., she grew up in Portland, Maine, and graduated from Wells College in Aurora, N.Y.
After visiting Cuba with her first husband, Daniel Bernstein, a prominent New York stockbroker, the couple decided to devote themselves to leftist causes, giving away millions of Bernstein’s inherited wealth through his foundation, DJB, until his death in 1970.
With her second husband, Wilbur Ferry, an employee of the DJB foundation, she contined to give away money to prominent leftist causes. When the foundation’s money ran out, they gave money from their personal funds.
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