She bought 3 Abbott shares for $180 in 1935; after her death at 100, her $7 million fortune went to help college students

Grace Groner lived a modest life in Lake Forest, Illinois, despite eventually accumulating a fortune worth more than $7 million. She never married or had children, worked for more than four decades as a secretary at Abbott Laboratories and remained closely connected to Lake Forest College, where she graduated in 1931. When she died in January 2010 at the age of 100, she left her entire estate to a foundation benefiting students at her alma mater. Her fortune had grown from three Abbott shares she purchased for $60 each in 1935, an investment of $180 that she held for the rest of her life. Groner and her twin sister, Gladys, had been orphaned as children before the Anderson family took them in and helped support their education.How three Abbott shares became a multimillion-dollar fortuneGroner's extraordinary financial story began after she started working at Abbott Laboratories. According to the Grace Elizabeth Groner Foundation, she bought three shares of Abbott stock for $60 each in 1935. She held onto the investment and reinvested the dividends as the company continued to grow and its shares split over the following decades. The original $180 investment eventually became a fortune worth more than $7 million.Groner spent more than four decades working at Abbott as a secretary, but her lifestyle remained modest even as the value of her investment increased. She lived in a small one-bedroom cottage in Lake Forest rather than moving into a larger or more expensive home. Her attorney and longtime friend, William Marlatt, told contemporary reporters that Groner could have lived in any house in Lake Forest but chose not to. The precise value of her estate has been reported somewhat differently over the years. Contemporary coverage generally described it as about $7 million, while later accounts have cited figures around $7.2 million. Lake Forest College itself describes the gift as more than $7 million, making that the safest figure to use when describing the bequest.Grace Groner's connection to Lake Forest CollegeGroner's relationship with Lake Forest College began long before her fortune was known. She and her twin sister, Gladys, were orphaned when they were children and were taken in by the Anderson family of Lake Forest. The family helped the sisters attend boarding school and later supported their education at Lake Forest College, where Grace graduated in 1931.She remained involved with the college for decades after graduating. Before her death, Groner gave $180,000 to establish a scholarship programme intended to help students pursue internships and study-abroad opportunities. She also continued attending college events and maintaining a connection with the institution. Groner's charitable giving extended beyond the college. Contemporary reporting described her as someone who regularly made smaller donations to local causes, sometimes anonymously. Her lifelong pattern of giving meant that Lake Forest College knew her as a generous supporter, even though the institution did not know the full scale of her wealth.How a modest donor left a multimillion-dollar estateGroner had arranged for her estate to benefit Lake Forest College through a foundation. College president Stephen Schutt knew for more than a year before her death that she intended to leave her estate to the institution, but he did not know the eventual size of the gift. When Groner died in January 2010, the value of the estate revealed the extraordinary scale of the bequest.The Grace Elizabeth Groner Foundation was established to support qualified Lake Forest College students. Its current description says the foundation provides financial support to service-oriented students and helps fund service-learning opportunities in their communities, nationally and internationally. This includes opportunities that allow students to undertake service projects as part of their educational experience. Groner's former home also became part of her legacy. She left the cottage to Lake Forest College, and it became known as Grace's Cottage. The foundation says two female Lake Forest College seniors are invited to live there each year as Grace's guests. The cottage therefore became another way for her modest home to remain connected to the college and its students after her death.Why Grace Groner's story became a fundraising lessonThe size of Groner's bequest attracted attention in the fundraising world because her wealth was not apparent from her lifestyle. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on the case as a lesson for colleges seeking to identify potential estate donors. Fundraising writer Roger Craver pointed to characteristics in Groner's history that, in his view, could have indicated her potential, including her continued support for the college and her pattern of making smaller charitable gifts. Craver's interpretation should not be treated as a formula for predicting who will leave a large estate gift. What is documented is that Groner had maintained a long relationship with Lake Forest College, had given to the institution during her lifetime and had arranged for her estate to benefit it after her death. Her outwardly modest lifestyle did not reveal the value of the investment she had held for decades.Her story also emerged during a period when American universities were receiving a number of unexpectedly large anonymous donations. ABC News reported in 2010 that at least nine US universities had received gifts of more than $1 million from anonymous donors during the spring of 2009. The examples included an $8 million gift to Purdue University and a $6 million gift to the University of Southern Mississippi. Groner's bequest stood out because of the unusual path her money had taken. Three Abbott shares purchased for $180 in 1935 had grown through decades of holding and reinvested dividends into an estate worth more than $7 million. After her death, that wealth was redirected toward students at the college that had helped shape her early life, turning a quiet lifetime investment into a lasting source of educational support.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.