These People Donated Millions After They Died--But No One Knew They Were Rich
Last edited Fri May 31, 2019, 02:37 PM - Edit history (1)
In life, they were humble secretaries,
teachers, and janitors.
When they died, they were richer
than anyone knew—and they
gave millions to charity.
The Secretary Sylvia Bloom left $8.2 million to educational programs and a scholarship fund.
Sylvia Bloom was a modest secretary, a widow of more than a decade who lived in a one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment and took the subway everywhere, including to her job at a Manhattan law firm. She worked there—
full-time—until she was 96.
Sylvia Bloom’s story is indeed extraordinary, but it’s not as uncommon as you might think. Working-class benefactors—secretaries, teachers, janitors, and more—make headlines with awe-inspiring regularity.
In 2015, a retired grocer in Milwaukee left
$13 million to a local Catholic high school.
The year before, a former JCPenney janitor from Vermont left a nearly $5 million bequest to a local hospital.
“In a world that is in many ways survival of the fittest, they’re certainly a special class of people,” says Garza. Try these ways to give back to charity without breaking the bank.
After a stint in the Navy, Gigowski went on to become a butcher and a grocer. He never married.
The Grocer Milwaukee’s Leonard Gigowski left a $13 million scholarship fund to his high school alma mater.
The Teacher Margaret Southern left $8.4 million to the Humane Society and education causes.
“It’s a wonderful surprise to wake up and find a very unassuming woman who cares greatly for our community and its children,” said Susan Shi, PhD, founder and chair emerita of the Institute for Child Success, a recipient of $25,000.
They certainly understood the importance of planning for the future. Careful, conservative investing—putting money in the stock market and leaving it there to grow—has always been the ticket to a comfortable retirement, and that’s how these working-class benefactors built their legacies.
Ronald Read was a blue-collar guy with blue-chip smarts. A gas station attendant and JCPenney janitor in Brattleboro, Vermont, he read the Wall Street Journal every day, following his investments in Ford, IBM, Procter & Gamble, and CVS Health. When he died in 2014 at age 92, he was worth $8 million.
Not every working-class benefactor scrimped and saved. Kathleen Magowan, a teacher from Simsbury, Connecticut, had no idea she was rich until just before she died in 2011, at age 87. Not long before she passed away, she visited a small law firm for help managing her estate. When they asked how much she thought it was worth, Magowan guessed around $40,000. The real number: $6 million.
Some would go on a shopping spree if they became millionaires overnight. Magowan turned to charity. Her will outlined $5 million in bequests to 15 organizations, along with gifts to relatives and neighbors. She left close to half a million each to her alma mater, the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford; the McLean nursing home where she spent her final days; and the Simsbury public schools, where she had taught first grade for 35 years.
Originally Published in Reader's Digest, read it at:
https://www.rd.com/true-stories/inspiring/secret-millionaires-donations-after-died/
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Amazing what ordinary working people can achieve isn't it. But most of these people had no children!
So we all should be very grateful to our parents who sacrificed a lot for us instead of becoming millionaires.