This Modest 98-Year-Old Man Donated Stock Now Worth $2M to Wildlife Charity
Our faith in humanity resorted after we heard this 98-year-old man donated stock worth $2M to help create wildlife refuge. Find out more!
The modest man, who is 98-years-old, donated the money instead of keeping and is teaching us all a powerful lesson.
When you get $2 million out of the blue into your pocket you can’t help but think what to do with it. Well, this man, who lives a modest life, thought about it, and gave it all away.
In a world where having money is something spectacular and you need to show everyone you have them, there is this man.
He put his money to a good use after 70 years ago, he made a wise investment.
Russ Gremel from Chicago, Illinois bought a $1,000 worth of stock in a pharmacy chain called Walgreens.
Since he bought the stock, the chain has grown into a drug retail giant worth more than $62 billion.
The man is now 98 years old and his $1,000 stock is worth more than $2 million. But instead of showing off and living the luxurious life in the time he has left, Gremel gave it all away.
He made sure the rest of us have a better world to live in and donated his stock’s value to help create a 400-acre wildlife refuge.
“I’m a very simple man,” Gremel told the Tribune. “I never let anybody know I had that kind of money.”
Why not leaving the money to his family?
He is alone in this world without a wife or children to live the money to. Gremel lived in the same house for 95 years. Growing up, his family didn’t have much because they lost everything after the 1929 stock market crash.
His family’s living has taught him to enjoy life and be completely happy while living modestly. At 45 years old he retired from practicing law to enjoy that same life.
Although he could have done literally anything with the money, he had no desire to spend it.
“Why not give it to them now when … I have the pleasure and enjoyment of seeing it,” he said.
Why giving it to wildlife charity?
Because for him, nature always had an important place in Gremel’s heart, who spent much of his life outdoors, hiking and camping.
At 19 he used to travel west across the country, hitchhiking and riding the rails on trains. There he promised himself “You’re not going to die at 70 years of age and say, ‘What if?'”
He donated the stock to the Illinois Audubon Society, which used the money to buy a 400-acre property from Augustana College.
To thank him properly, they’ve named the reserve after Gremel.
“It’s incredibly generous,” said Jim Herkert, the executive director of the Audubon Society.
“It’s allowing us to protect a really valuable and important piece of property and fulfill one of Russ’ wishes that we could find a place where people could come out and experience and enjoy nature the way he did as a kid.”
“You have to do some good in this world,” Gremel said. “That’s what money is for.”
That’s what we are talking about! When is the last time you did something like this?
