Man who lived modestly leaves millions in gifts

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont man who sometimes held his coat together with safety pins and had a habit of foraging for firewood also had a hidden talent for picking stocks — a talent that became public after his death when he bequeathed $6 million to his local library and hospital.

The investments made by Ronald Read, a former gas station employee and janitor who died last June at age 92, “grew substantially” over the years, said his attorney Laurie Rowell.

Read, who was known for his flannel jacket and baseball cap, gave no hint of the size of his fortune.

The bequest of $4.8 million to the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and $1.2 million to the town’s Brooks Memorial Library were the largest each institution has ever received. Read also made a number of smaller bequests.

Read worked at a service station for 25 years then worked for 17 years as a janitor at the local J.C. Penney. In 1960 he married a woman he met at the service station. She died in 1970.

Stepson Phillip Brown told the Brattleboro Reformer he visited Read every few months, more often as Read’s health declined. The only indication Brown had of Read’s investments was his regular reading of the Wall Street Journal.

“I was tremendously surprised,” Brown said of Read’s hidden wealth. “He was a hard worker, but I don’t think anybody had an idea that he was a multi-millionaire.”