Female Brookline High School graduates heading to Massachusetts colleges can now tap a scholarship fund that grew from $3,000 to $3.2 million while going largely unused for decades.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Scott Kafker approved the Town of Brookline's petition on June 16 to loosen eligibility rules on the Abbie W. Deane Scholarship Fund, according to the court's disposition. The fund's 1914 terms had restricted awards to female BHS graduates attending only Radcliffe College or Simmons College.

"This doubled our resources in one fell swoop," School Committee Chair Bob Weintraub said.

The change matters now. This year, 149 members of the Class of 2026 received a combined $680,599 in need-based BHS scholarships. The Deane Fund alone generated an average of $163,635 in annual income from 2022 to 2025, but only eight Simmons-bound students applied during that period. All eight received awards totaling $68,500. That left 89% of the fund's annual income unused and reinvested, Brookline.News reported.

Under the new court order, female BHS graduates with financial need attending Harvard or Simmons still get first priority. Surplus funds can now go to female graduates with financial need attending other Massachusetts colleges and universities. Individual awards range from $500 for one year to $10,000 annually for four years, based on demonstrated need.

Charlotte Hedge created the fund in her 1914 will, naming it for Abbie W. Deane, a BHS teacher from 1861 to 1888 who died of tuberculosis. Hedge described Deane as "a brave and loyal soul." The fund's first award was made in 1941, after income reached the $200-per-year threshold Hedge specified, according to Brookline Community Foundation documents.

In 1999, Radcliffe merged financially with Harvard, which meets the full financial need of all admitted students. Because BHS scholarships are awarded based on unmet need, only Simmons students qualified in recent years.

The legal effort to broaden eligibility began as Brookline faced the approaching expiration of $90,000 a year in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) scholarship funding for Steps to Success students, set to end in 2026.

John Hodgman, founding chair of the Brookline Community Foundation's (BCF) scholarship fund for BHS, recruited Cathleen Cavell, a lawyer and former Brookline associate town counsel, to navigate the process. Changing the bequest's terms required locating Hedge's original will in Norfolk County probate records.

Cavell enlisted a probate court clerk, who consulted a longtime colleague who knew additional ways to search the court's handwritten records. They found the will in August 2024.

Town Counsel then filed a cy pres petition, a legal doctrine allowing charitable bequests to be revised when their original purpose becomes impracticable. In its petition, the town argued the restrictions had resulted in "a waste of funds." Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell's office assented.

The timeline for when BHS will begin accepting applications under the expanded terms has not been announced.