Retiree Donates Fortune to Education By AP Published: October 15, 1991 DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Oct. 14—Theodore R. Johnson never made more than $14,000 a year, but he invested wisely -- so wisely that he made $70 million. Now he is donating $36 million of his fortune for education. "I wanted to do something with the money to help education," Mr. Johnson, a 90-year-old retired executive for United Parcel Service of America Inc., said today in his apartment in this South Florida retirement community. "Need is the thing. There are so many kids that can't go to college." Much of the scholarship money will go to students from middle-class families who may fail to qualify for government aid financially or academically but whose families cannot afford to send them to college. The rest will help poor students, the deaf and American Indian students. Mr. Johnson, who has set up large trust funds for his son, Theodore, and for his two grandchildren and a nephew, intends to divide the scholarships from his educational fund among six groups. The largest share, $14.4 million, will go to Palm Beach Atlantic College, a Southern Baptist liberal arts institution in West Palm Beach. He said he was not a churchgoer but admired Palm Beach Atlantic College's emphasis on free enterprise, with mandatory courses and lectures by successful business people. He and his late wife, Vivian, gave money to the college for 10 years. Mr. Johnson, who was reared in a middle-class family, worked his way up at U.P.S. to vice president for industrial relations by the time he retired in 1952. His annual salary was $14,000 then, but he had bought as much of the company's stock as he could and had about $700,000 when he retired. While enjoying his retirement, he watched the company grow -- and the value of his stock holdings with it. "I was very lucky," said Mr. Johnson, whose own college education was helped by Federal money he received as a World War I veteran. Gratitude to His Company The children of U.P.S. employees in Florida will have a $7.2 million program because Mr. Johnson wants to do something to show his gratitude to United Parcel, which he refers to as "we" or "us." "When you grow with a company and are closely related through work to the founders' families, you become part of that feeling," Mr. Johnson said. Bob Kenney, a U.P.S. spokesman, said the company "would be very pleased" to hear about the gift. The American Indian College Fund will get $3.6 million, which officials of the organization say is the largest donation in its history. "That one seems a little strange," Mr. Johnson said in an interview. "I don't know as I ever met an Indian before. But I always felt the Indians got a raw deal, and many of them still live in poor conditions." College President Thrilled He said he had wanted to donate to Little Big Horn College, a two-year institution in Crow Agency, Mont., but Little Big Horn is among 26 Indian colleges that pool their money. Still, the president of Little Big Horn, Janine Windyboy, was thrilled. "It's such a major event for us," she said after hearing of the gift. "It's just amazing. I was between crying and yelling and jumping." Also receiving $3.6 million each are Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf in Washington, D.C.; the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, in St. Augustine, and a scholarship fund for poor children. "I've been hard of hearing since the 1940's, when I got a hearing aid," Mr. Johnson said. "I wanted to do something to help the deaf." Photo: "I wanted to do something with the money to help education," said Theodore R. Johnson, a former executive with the United Parcel Service. (Associated Press)
As great as this story sounds for every one person that does this about 100000 lose.....think of all those who wanted stock options in those mid 90s dot com start ups and where it all went after the collapse.....you rarely hear stories like this where a person bought as much stock possible and one day retired with millions of dollars in the company they worked for....could that happen again???? Can a person today do the same exact thing working at UPS? Sure he can buy all the UPS stock they want, but will thhe have the same returns...of course not....UPS grew by leaps and bounds in those 5 decades he was retired, they were on top, they still are today but with more competition...could UPS provide those same returns over the next 50 years? The answer to that is NO....
Oh and another thing....who stays with a company more than 2 years....the new in thing to do is escape from your job every 18-36 months... The longer you stay the worse it looks...yes...before a resume with one or two jobs on it was the icing on the cake..you were an MVP, you were the damn King......today 2 or 4 jobs on your resume and they toss it right in the shredder....yep you need to have about 18 jobs to pass and get the first interview......
$700K in 1952 turned into $70M today, 54 yrs later. That was a ~9% compounded return, not too different from the annual returns of the S&P500. It says if you take the long view, anyone can be rich. And, he invested and spent wisely after retirement.
This story is actually a story of someone who got lucky, put all his eggs in one basket and caught a huge run in a single stock. Most people that try this strategy will fail miserably. That is because most stocks don't do remotely as well. The reason why indexing works is because you gives enough exposure to minority of the stocks that go into huge runs, which offset the losses/opportunity cost of the stocks that fail/don't do a thing.