Hefty Gift for Senior Care

    Nicole Kopf, an East Hampton resident who died in March at 81 and bequeathed $375,000 to the Town of East Hampton for its services for senior citizens, enjoyed visiting the town’s senior center on Springs-Fireplace Road, her sister, Eileen Berets of Stamford, Conn., said this week. “I’m sure she felt that she wanted to support it for the future,” Ms. Berets said.

    The money will be deposited in a separate “senior donation reserve account” to be established at Bridgehampton National Bank, according to a resolution approved by the town board last Thursday accepting the donation.

    Services for which it can be used, offered by the town’s Human Services Department, include an adult day care program, a nutrition program, transportation, and in-home care services.

    According to an obituary published in The Star, Ms. Kopf loved long walks and visiting East Hampton’s Main Beach. She wrote poetry, gave readings at Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor and other places, and in 1991 came out with a volume of poems, “Verses and Visions,” which was illustrated by Peter Lipman-Wulf and featured an afterword by Enez Whipple, the director of Guild Hall at the time. Her husband, Fred Kopf, died before her, and she left no children.

    She was born Nicole Tolkowsky in Antwerp, Belgium. Her father, Marcel Tolkowsky, was a gemologist who, as part of his doctoral thesis at the University of London in 1919, developed a mathematical formula for cutting 58 facets on a diamond to provide maximum reflected light and brilliance, called the “ideal cut.” The family immigrated to the United States in 1940, and Mr. Tolkowsky worked as a designer and dealer in diamonds.

    Councilman Dominick Stanzione, the town board’s liaison to the Human Services Department, said Tuesday that he wished to express “how grateful and humbled we are by [Ms. Kopf’s] generosity.”

    “We’ll endeavor, with fortitude and grace, to put it to good use,” he said.