Secret Millionaire Donates Her Fortune

Secret Millionaire Donates Her Fortune: Amazing Grace Groner – A secret millionaire, Grace Groner aka Amazing Grace, donated her $7 million fortune to Lake Forest College. Groner’s estate stemmed from a $180 stock purchase she made in 1935. When Groner died in January at the age of 100, her attorney informed theLake Forest College president what that gift added up to. “Oh, my God,” the president said. She got her clothes from rummage sales. She walked everywhere rather than buy a car. And her one-bedroom house in Lake Forest held little more than a few plain pieces of furniture, some mismatched dishes and a hulking TV set that appeared left over from the Johnson administration. Her one splurge was a small scholarship program she had created for Lake Forest College, her alma mater. She planned to contribute more upon her death, and when she passed away in January, at the age of 100, her attorney informed the college president what that gift added up to. “She did not have the (material) needs that other people have,” said William Marlatt, her attorney and longtime friend reported the Chicago Tribune. “She could have lived in any house in Lake Forest but she chose not to. … She enjoyed other people, and every friend she had was a friend for who she was. They weren’t friends for what she had.”

She lived in a one-bedroom house in Lake Forest and worked for Abbott Laboratories as a secretary for 43 years. Groner never felt the urge to keep up with the lavish Lake Forest lifestyle, but she did splurge occasionally. Groner was born in a small Lake County farming community, but by the time she was 12 both of her parents had died. She was taken in by George Anderson, a member of one of Lake Forest’s leading families and an apparent friend to Groner’s parents.