OBITUARIES

Harold J. Bassinger; Joseph L. Conti of Colmar; Lois Lorraine Hinkle of Telford; Eugene V. Salzmann Jr. of North Wales

Dorrance Hill Hamilton, whose grandfather invented the process used to make Campbell’s condensed soups and who used her inherited fortune for philanthropy, has died. She was 88.

Hamilton died Tuesday at her home in Boca Grande, Florida, said Nancy Brent Wingo, executive director of the Hamilton Family Foundation. A cause of death wasn’t disclosed. Hamilton, who embraced the nickname “Dodo,” was an avid gardener and tended to thousands of plants on her 10acre estate in Wayne, just west of Philadelphia. She also had a home in Newport, Rhode Island.

Hamilton was the granddaughter of Campbell Soup Co. founder John T. Dorrance and was a longtime fixture on Forbes’ list of the country’s 400 richest people. The magazine estimated her net worth at $1.1 billion in 2006, but she dropped off the list in subsequent years.

She gave away millions of dollars to Philadelphia educational and cultural institutions.

Hamilton was a fixture at the Philadelphia Flower Show, winning countless ribbons over three decades before retiring from competition in 2014.

She had many full-time gardeners working in the greenhouses around her red brick Georgian mansion.