Campbell Soup heiress, philanthropist, gardener

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.

Ms. Hamilton died Tuesday at her home in Boca Grande, Fla., said Nancy Brent Wingo, executive director of the Hamilton Family Foundation. A cause of death wasn’t disclosed.

Ms. Hamilton, who embraced the nickname “Dodo,” was an avid gardener and tended thousands of plants on her 10-acre estate in Wayne, just west of Philadelphia. She also had a home in Newport, R.I.

Ms. 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 to Philadelphia educational and cultural institutions, including $25 million to Thomas Jefferson University, a medical school, and $25 million to The University of the Arts.

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

Her longtime support of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which sponsors the flower show, allowed the organization to redesign and maintain civic landscapes around the city.

She and her husband established the Hamilton Family Foundation in 1992. It provides funding for literacy-based educational projects in underserved schools in Philadelphia; Camden, N.J.; and Chester, Pa.

In 1999, she founded the Newport-based SVF Foundation, a nonprofit that works to preserve endangered breeds of food and livestock.