Ronald Read pumped gas and worked as a janitor in Brattleboro, Vermont. He wore old flannel shirts, drove a used car, and gathered fallen branches for his wood stove. Once at the local coffee shop, somebody even paid for his breakfast because they figured he couldn’t afford it. When he died in 2014, his town found out he had quietly built a fortune of about $8 million through careful investing. He left $1.2 million to the local library and $4.8 million to the hospital, the biggest gifts either had ever received.
