Alva Bella Gimbel

Alva (Bernheimer) Gimbel, an active philanthropist and the wife of the late Bernard F. Gimbel, the board chairman of Gimbel Brothers, died yesterday at her estate in Greenwich, Conn. She was 90 years old.

She was born in Manhattan and was 18 years old when she was married in 1912 to Mr. Gimbel, who had come from Philadelphia to lay the groundwork for the Herald Square store. They had five children. Mr. Gimbel died in 1966 at the age of 81.

Mrs. Gimbel was a founder of the women's auxiliary of the Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York University Medical Center and a board member of the Lighthouse-New York Association for the Blind and the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art. She was an early supporter of the Dance Theater of Harlem and aided it through the Alva and Bernard F. Gimbel Foundation.

Mrs. Gimbel is survived by two daughters, Hope G. Solinger and Caral G. Lebworth, and a son, Peter R. Gimbel, all of Manhattan; 12 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.