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The story of Ronald Read shocked the United States for one particular reason: Behind a man who had worked as a janitor and gas station attendant was a fortune of nearly $8 million. For decades, he lived simply, avoided unnecessary expenses and kept his investments out of sight of those who knew him.
Read was a World War II veteran and never held a job in finance. Even so, he developed an interest in the stock market, learned about companies by reading the newspaper and set aside part of his income to buy shares.
Over the years, that habit allowed him to build a multimillion-dollar estate.
Who Ronald Read was and how he came to work as a janitor and gas station attendant
Ronald Read was born in 1921 in Dummerston, Vermont, in a family with limited means. He was the first in his family to finish high school and, to get to class, he walked or hitchhiked about six kilometers. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in North Africa, Italy and the Pacific.
After returning home, he worked for about 25 years at a Haviland’s gas station. Later, he found work as a maintenance man and janitor at a JCPenney store, where he stayed another 17 years until retiring in 1997.
How he learned to invest in stocks by reading the newspaper and built his fortune
Although he never worked in finance, Read developed a strong interest in the stock market because one of his habits was to read The Wall Street Journal every day, while setting aside part of his income to buy shares in companies he knew. His investments included companies such as AT&T, Bank of America, General Electric, CVS and John Deere.
His strategy was to hold stocks for long periods and reinvest the dividends he received, rather than chase quick gains. According to reports published after his death, his portfolio grew to include holdings in about 95 companies. In this way, through decades of saving and steady investing, he built a fortune that no one around him could have imagined.
How much money Read accumulated and what was discovered about his estate when he died
Read died on June 2, 2014, at 92, with a fortune of nearly $8 million that included shares in numerous companies and property, despite living simply, driving a used car and avoiding spending money on luxuries.
The surprise came when his will was opened, since Read had decided to leave $4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and another $1.2 million to the Brooks Memorial Library, two institutions in his community. The donations became historic contributions for both organizations and revealed that the man who had worked as a janitor and gas station attendant had built one of the largest private fortunes in his town.