How would you like want your financial resources to contribute to your life fulfillment and the life fulfillment of other? In case you missed this story in the news, here is one woman who answered that question.
When Grace Groner died at the age of 100 recently, she left behind a surprise—a bequest of more than $7 million to her alma matter, Lake Forest College. What made it unusual was that Grace was not known as one of the many millionaires who make the Chicago North Shore suburb one of the nation’s most affluent towns. She did not inherit or marry money or build a business that left her wealthy. She did not dwell in one of the town’s mansions, but in a tiny frame cottage built many years earlier as a home for one of the domestic servants to the rich.
Grace was born on a farm in near-by Lake County. She and a sister were orphaned when she was twelve. A prominent Lake Forest family took the girls in and paid their way to the local college. She graduated in 1931, the depths of the Depression, but was lucky to get a job with the pharmaceutical company Abbot Laboratories as a secretary which she held for 43 years until she retired. She never married and lived simply, buying clothes at thrift stores and walking rather than owning a car.
Early in her career at Abbot, she bought three shares of specially issued stock in her employer’s company for $60 each. She never sold them. The stock split many times and she re-invested all of her dividends living on her salary and later her retirement income. Despite the many ups and downs of the stock market, including last year’s crash, the investment grew to millions before she died.
Unlike other “secret millionaires” Grace was neither a recluse nor a miser. Grace just chose to live simply. She always remained connected to Lake Forest College and regularly attended events there. She was active in the local Presbyterian Church. A cultured and gregarious woman, she had a wide circle of friends. She regularly gave to charity and through her church often gave anonymous gifts to local families in need. Before she died she had established an $180,000 scholarship fund at the college. After retirement she enjoyed traveling.
Her lawyer was one of the few who knew the extent of her wealth. He helped her establish a foundation to fund her endowment for the college. The President of the college was told a year before she died that there would be a bequest, but he never knew its size until the will was read.
Grace’s gift will fund scholarships for students to study abroad from about $300,000 annual income from the principal. She also willed her tiny home to the school. It will be named “Grace’s Cottage” and will house recipients of her scholarship aid.
Her friend and attorney William Marlatt summed up her life best, “She could have lived in any house in Lake Forest but she chose not to. … She enjoyed other people, and every friend she had was a friend for who she was. They weren't friends for what she had."
This modest woman left not just an estate--she left a state of Grace.
