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Isabel Ostroff Sobol
Isabel Ostroff Sobol
Doing What's Best
When Isabel Ostroff Sobol was considering college, her father sought the advice of his friend, Harold Budd. Mr. Budd, an attorney and the first law instructor at Drexel, recommended the Home Economics program at Drexel. So, not knowing what lay ahead, Isabel enrolled.
"If I had known I would have to take physics and chemistry," she now says, "I probably would not have gone to Drexel. It was practically a pre-med curriculum!" But she persevered and earned her degree.
After graduating, she went to work for a distributor of major appliances. She was also hired to do a local cooking show twice a week on WFIL-TV. A few years later, an advertising agency recruited her to serve as spokesperson for one of its clients, an association of professional laundries. Laundromats were opening in cities across the nation, posing competition to laundry services. As the character "Betty Best," Isabel did daily commercials on live television in New York City, extolling the benefits of using a professional laundry service. From there, it was on to a larger account: Lestoil. Isabel flew around the country, appearing on local TV talk shows to promote this new cleaning product.
Isabel thrived as an independent career woman in Manhattan. With her degree in Home Economics, she worked on food accounts for a public relations firm and eventually supervised the test kitchen for Weight Watchers International, where recipes were developed for use in promotions and compiled in the annual Weight Watchers cookbook.
As someone who grew up during the Great Depression, Isabel has always managed her finances carefully. When she was planning for retirement, she learned about Charitable Gift Annuities at her alma mater. She liked the fact that they offered guaranteed annual income for life. What's more, they allowed her to create a significant future gift to Drexel. "I feel I owe something to Drexel for the education I received and the opportunities it provided," she explains.
She now has three Charitable Gift Annuities with Drexel. Eventually, the remainder of these annuities will endow a scholarship fund that will provide financial support every year, in perpetuity, for a student enrolled at the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design-the successor of the College of Home Economics.
In 2011, Isabel sold her apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side and moved to Medford Leas, one of the nation's first Continuous Care Residential Communities. She is happy to be closer to her large extended family in South Jersey. After so many years of urban bustle, she is enjoying the pastoral environs and the variety of activities at Medford Leas. Isabel is also enjoying the financial security that her Charitable Gift Annuities with Drexel provide.