A Vermont gas station attendant and janitor left more than $8 million in stocks, and his stepson had no idea

Ronald Read grew up in Dummerston, Vermont^†, and served in the Army in Italy in the Second World War. He worked about 25 years at Haviland's Service Station in Brattleboro, which he later co-owned, then 17 years as a part-time janitor at J.C. Penney. His wife died in 1970, and he did not remarry. He drove a second-hand Toyota Yaris and held his winter coat together with a safety pin. His lawyer said his two hobbies were investing and cutting wood. He read The Wall Street Journal and Barron's and bought blue-chip stocks, avoiding technology companies. He held at least 95 stocks and kept the certificates in a safe deposit box, in a stack five inches high^†. He died at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in 2014, aged 92. His estate was more than $8 million. His stepson, Phillip Brown, said he had no idea how much Read had. Read left $4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and $1.2 million to Brooks Memorial Library, both unrestricted. The library first restored opening hours the town had cut in budget reductions and invested the rest as an endowment, spending only the income. A hospital expansion partly paid for by his gift, the Ronald Read Pavilion, opened in 2022^†.