Ronald Read was many things, but a braggart was not one of them. The WWII veteran was known as a quiet gentle man by his friends and neighbors in Vermont. “I always say about Ronald, ‘Still waters run deep,'” said neighbor Mark Richards, “on the surface he seemed like this quiet person with marginal means.” What few people knew about Ronald was that he was secretly a millionaire who had amasses more than $8 million dollars on the stock market.
Ronald never let his fortune affect his values and worked as a gas station attendant then as a janitor at a J.C. Penny. Upon his death at the age of 92, Ronald left $4.8 million to the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and $1.2 million to the Brooks Memorial Library. The hospital always held a special place in his heart and would regularly visit their cafe for a cup of coffee and an English muffin with peanut butter. According Jerry Carbone, the executive director of the library, “Being a self-made man with his investments, he recognized the transformative nature of a library, what it can do for people.”
Hear more about Ronald’s amazing story of humble generosity in the video below.