Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and columnist Meg Greenfield -- who died of lung cancer last May -- left $3 million to the University of Washington's department of classics, the Seattle Times reports.

The gift is one of the one of the largest in UW history. The gift was kept quiet until the closure of Greenfield's will, the newspaper reports.

About $1.75 million will be used for scholarships and fellowships. Another $500,000 will be used to maintain Greenfield's summer house on Bainbridge Island, which she also left to the university. She had used it as a gathering place for leaders to exchange ideas, and will now be used as a retreat and study facility for scholars.

The gift follows donations Greenfield made to the university's classics department during the last decade, the article reports.

The Seattle native grew up in Washington, D.C., and wrote editorials for the Washington Post and columns for Newsweek.

The only direct connection Greenfield had with the school was that her late brother, Jim, was a student there in the 1940s. The scholarship is named in his honor, the Seattle Times reports. She also became a friend of the university's president, William Gerberding.

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