Lillian and Bernyce Neugebauer Fund

Lillian Neugebauer stood under five feet tall, but it was her outsized sense of humor and larger-than-life personality that endeared her to family and friends. Born in Stanton Heights in 1926, Neugebauer was a world traveler who still called Pittsburgh home for her entire life. She lived with her sister, Bernyce, for most of her life. In 2003, the sisters left a retirement home and moved to an apartment in Hampton, blaming the poor quality of the food at the retirement home as the reason for the move. Together, they created the Lillian and Bernyce Neugebauer fund in 2013 with an initial gift of $654,186. The money from the fund is split up evenly between five local organizations: Animal Friends, Animal Rescue League, The Pittsburgh Zoo, Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and Forbes Hospice. The Neugebauer sisters lived together until Bernyce’s death on Aug. 23, 2014.

Lillian was a lifelong lover of animals, and supported many local animal shelters and humane societies, and was especially interested in The Pittsburgh Zoo. Though not wealthy, during her lifetime, she gave a sizable amount from her years of work as a secretary, and an inheritance from Bernyce, to the zoo. Janet Rose, senior director of Development and Conservation Initiatives at the zoo, praised Lillian as “very, very special” and remembered Lillian’s excitement at being taken on a behind-the-scenes tour of the monkey habitat.

She also loved her behind-the-scenes visits with the big cats, her favorite animals. In the spring of 2016, the zoo honored Lillian’s years of dedication by asking her to name an Amur leopard cub born there. The Amur leopard is among the most endangered in the world, and the cub raised at the zoo could be integral to saving the wild members of the species. Lillian chose the name Semba. In keeping with her lifetime of caring about animals, Lillian Neugebauer’s final philanthropic act – naming the cub – is one that will have a positive impact long after her death. In this way, Semba is the living legacy of Lillian Neugebauer. Lillian died of heart failure on Aug. 5, 2016.