Ronald Read

Ronald James Read (October 23, 1921 – June 2, 2014) was an American philanthropist, investor, janitor, and gas station attendant. Read grew up in Dummerston, Vermont, in an impoverished farming household. He walked or hitchhiked daily to his high school and was the first high school graduate in his family. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II, serving in Italy as a military policeman. Upon an honorable discharge from the military in 1945, Read returned to Brattleboro, Vermont, where he worked as a gas station attendant and mechanic for about 25 years. Read retired for one year and then took a part-time janitor job at J. C. Penney where he worked for 17 years until 1997.

Read died in 2014. He received media coverage in numerous newspapers and magazines after bequeathing US$1.2 million to Brooks Memorial Library and $4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. Read amassed a fortune of almost $8 million by investing in dividend-producing stocks, avoiding the stocks of companies he did not understand such as technology companies, living frugally, and being a buy and hold investor in a diversified portfolio of stocks with a heavy concentration in blue chip companies.

Early life and career

Read was born on October 23, 1921, to George and Florence Ray Read into an indigent family that managed a farm. He was raised in Dummerston, Vermont, in an extremely tiny house. To travel to high school, he daily walked and hitchhiked to Brattleboro. He had an older brother, Frank. He reached the Army rank of technician fifth grade.

Read worked for almost a quarter of a century as an attendant and mechanic at Haviland's Service Station, a gas station that he and his older brother, Fred, later purchased and then sold upon retiring. which lasted a year. before retiring in 1997 after working there for 17 years. Read purchased for US$12,000 a house where he lived with his wife and stepchildren. He financed his stepchildren's college education. Read frequently patronized Brattleboro Memorial Hospital's coffee shop to drink one cup of coffee and eat a breakfast of an English muffin with peanut butter. After the coffee place shuttered, he began to eat breakfast at Friendly's.

Investing and frugality Reader's Digests Juliana LaBianca said Read was "a blue-collar guy with blue-chip smarts". The Wall Street Journal noted that his roughly $2,380 purchase of 39 Pacific Gas and Electric Company shares on January 13, 1959, grew to $10,735 by the time he died. Read used a safety pin on his fraying khaki denim jacket so he could continue wearing it Barry Ritholtz of The Washington Post praised Read, writing, "How a man of modest means accumulated so much wealth contains exemplary lessons for saving that apply to all of us." He noted that lessons could be learned from Read's experience: "But there is also a cautionary tale about recognizing the value of your finite time here on Earth. Perhaps learning to enjoy life while you can is part of that equation."