In the small town of Hinsdale, Geoffery Holt lived a slightly eccentric, but mostly quiet life working contentedly as the groundskeeper of a mobile home park.
Relying on either a bicycle or a lawnmower as his mode of transport, his friends remembered him as an articulate fellow, and his obituary page describes him as “fundamentally modest and demure,”— “intellectually curious, humorous, and somewhat eccentric.”
He was a person “who made friends easily” and “an authority on automobiles and an aficionado of diecast metal cars as well as model railroading.”
The next line hints at the surprise that the 4,200 residents of Hinsdale received along with the news of his death—that he had a knack for market economics and amassed a $4.2 million fortune through investing in mutual funds which he left in its entirety to advance education, health services, recreation and culture in the town.
The story, broke first by the Associated Press, records the shock of several residents in the New Hampshire town who would often see him riding his sit-down lawnmower to the convenience store, or sitting on it in the trailer park reading a newspaper in threadbare clothes watching the cars go by.
Hinsdale has abundant fishing and hiking opportunities, and nearly the whole local economy is small businesses. The money was left to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which believes it could transform the town, but the town administrator on the other hand said the money would be used just as Mr. Holt used it—frugally.
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Interest payments from the Foundation’s trusts, which have now increased to around $150,000 a year, will be used to fund various grants that institutions or organizations can apply for.
In a statement to CNN, Kristen Oliveri, a spokesperson with the Foundation, said Holt’s “generosity has the potential to be transformational for a small community like Hinsdale.”
“The Charitable Foundation is honored to help put such generosity into action, and we look forward to helping distribute these funds in the years to come,” she said.
The first order of business though is to get a set of electronic ballot machines, since Holt was an avid voter and a supervisor of the hand counting of ballots during elections.
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An online obituary page is attracting heartfelt well wishes from those who’ve heard of the story, with a woman from the Midwest named Dee saying “hope to invest as well as Mr. Holt did. Kudos to him and his lifestyle – may it live on!”
“TY Geoffrey for giving us all a reason to smile and feel optimistic about society in the future especially now at the Holiday season. May the road rise to meet you. RIP,” read another.
WATCH the story below from AP…
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