A man who lived a life of modest means recently passed away and donated millions of dollars to a small New Hampshire town.
According to the Associated Press, Geoffrey Holt was working as a caretaker of a trailer park in Hinsdale, a small town of about 4,000, 60 miles southwest of Concord, at the time of his death on 6 June. He was 82.
He spent the last 15 years living off Social Security checks, his friend, Edwin “Smokey” Smith, told CNN. When he died, he left his life savings — a whopping $3.8m — to the town to improve areas of education, health, recreation and culture.
Hinsdale’s poverty level is currently around 12 per cent. The median family income is about $72,000.
The funds came from a trust he established in 2001. The account was passed along to the man’s friend and was donated to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, to town’s administrator Kathryn Lynch, told CNN.
Community members, schools and other organisations can apply for grants up to $150,000 per year. Officials were notified of the donation in September.
The town already has several ideas for how it wants to invest the funds, including an electronic voting machine and fixing the town hall clock, Ms Lynch told CNN. Mr Holt was a committed voter, the friend said. At one point, he also taught driver’s education. Officials have toyed with the idea of setting up an online course in his honour.
According to the AP, the man wore threadbare clothes, drove a lawn mower and owned almost no furniture or computer.
His fortune primarily came from investments and jobs he worked throughout his life. When he asked Mr Smith, the trailer park owner and former state legislator, what to do with the funds, he told him to “remember the town”, the AP reported.
It’s not clear why the millionaire chose to live frugally. His sister, Alison Holt, 81, told the outlet that her brother “didn’t need a lot to be happy” and “didn’t want to draw attention to himself”.
