A New Hampshire man who lived in an unfurnished mobile home and drove a lawnmower around his small town died a secret millionaire and bequeathed his fortune to a tight-knit community.
Geoffrey Holt, who died in June at the age of 82, was known as the caretaker of the Hinsdale mobile home park where he lived in a unit with no computer or TV and a bed with legs that penetrated the floor.
Holt rarely leaves the town of 4,200 people on the border of Vermont and Massachusetts and doesn’t have a car.
He was often seen riding his riding mower to the local convenience store, dressed in all sorts of clothes.
Edwin “Smokey” Smith, Holts’ best friend, former employer and former Republican state lawmaker, learned shortly before his death that the divorced, childless man had made an investment that had paid off big — to the tune of $3.8 million.
“He seems to have what he wants, but he doesn’t want much,” she said.
Smith suggested that Holt think about the community, but never expected him to give the entire money at once into his coffers, with instructions that it be spent on education, health, recreation and culture.
Geoffrey Holt drives his riding mower around the town of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and doesn’t own a car.AP
“I was kind of surprised when I found out that it all went to town,” Smith said.
He is well-liked in the community, where he often does odd jobs for others, but most residents don’t know that he lives well below his means.
“I think for Geoff, mowing the lawn is relaxing, it’s a way for him to connect with the outdoors,” says his physical therapist Jim Ferry.
“I think he sees it as a service to the people he cares about, which is the people in the trailer park who I think he really likes because they’re not affluent people.”
Geoffrey Holt left a fortune of $3.8 million to his community.AP
“I don’t think anyone knew that he was that successful,” said Steve Diorio, the chairman of the town’s board of selectmen who occasionally waves at Holt from his car. “I know he didn’t have a lot of family, but anyway, to give him to the city where he lives … It’s a really big gift.”
City officials are debating how best to use the big shot in the arm, and organizations have been invited to apply for grants.
Hinsdale will “use the money left very sparingly as Mr. Holt did,” said Kathryn Lynch, city administrator.
Holt, a former production manager at a grain mill, used to comb through financial publications and had invested in communications mutual funds before the advent of the digital age.
His sister, Alison Holt, 81, of Laguna Woods, California, said that Holt learned from her father the importance of not wasting money and investing.
Rezeki comes with instructions that it be spent on education, health, recreation and culture.AP
“Geoffrey has a learning disability. He has dyslexia,” he said. “He’s very smart in some ways. When it comes to writing or spelling, he is lost. And my father is a professor. So, I think Geoff felt like he let my dad down. But maybe throwing all that money away is a way to compete.”
Holt, who had served in the Navy and collected history books and records by composers such as Handel and Mozart, did not talk about money with his sister but often asked her if she needed anything.
“I feel really bad that he didn’t indulge himself a little bit,” said Alison, who also has no children.
“He always told me that his main goal in life was to make sure no one noticed anything,” she said, adding that he would say “or you might get in trouble.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
