Okay, here is another source:
Seattle man who wore clothes with holes, clipped coupons leaves $188M to institutions - NY Daily News
This one notes he gave more than $500k to the Children's Research Institute during his lifetime. There is also a photo of him with his late wife at the Cape of Good Hope, and the article notes they enjoyed traveling. Sounds like he had a wonderful life.
I'm not trying to say that this man wasn't a generous man, and perhaps he made other contributions during his lifetime....but the $500k referenced is a little over 0.25% of his estate value at death.
To put things in perspective, I give more as a % of my net worth each year (0.5%) to charities, than he gave over his lifetime before death.
Yes, he also donated time which has an imputed value - but unless he was a surgeon operating 24/7 for free on children for 100 years, your time will never approach anywhere near the value of a $187 million bequest.
Am I going to leave it all to charity? Well, if I die a single man without children, then yes, most of it will go to charities...but it could puzzle someone why you would intentionally have everything earmarked to charity as your ultimate goal and still hold it all until after you die.
Someone that buys so much frozen orange juice to need a new freezer to hold it perhaps isn't really looking at reality in a full picture. Unless he's drinking 3 gallons a day, I'm willing to bet the cost of the freezer and electricity outweighed the savings of buying the OJ on sale.
Granted, there can be terms of the trust we're not privy to, and there can be many reasons for decision like this, but I always find it odd when people go out of their way to help complete strangers by giving them millions (even billions) - yet to their own kin (stepdaughter in this case), they apparently give nearly (or precisely) nothing.
The various articles quote his step-daughter fairly extensively, and it sounds as though she was familiar with many details of his life, so it's reasonable to assume that she wasn't estranged from him.
Given decisions like that, one wonders how they view and value familial relationships while they were alive. Did they appreciate their family being around? Did they enjoy their presence? Did family members treat this guy nicely? Kind of blows your mind when it seems someone turns their back on family that - from what the article implies - were somewhat regular parts of his life. If he died first and left his wife a widow, would he have left her nothing? Just seems 'odd' that you would somewhat take care of your wife, but to your wife's daughter, she gets the cold shoulder and apparently absolutely nothing.
Oh, and on those charitable donations before he died?
He also donated $150,000 to the village of Elora, Canada, where his grandfather lived after emigrating from Scotland.
The village was able to purchase an ice rink and build a town hall thanks to his generous funds.
I sure hope I have the wrong Elora, Ontario, Canada, but according to Wikipedia, it's a town of about 4,500 people.
Within a 1 hour drive of Elora, Canada (according to Google maps) there are ten (10) ice rinks. Including another one in Elora at a school, and one just 3 miles away in neighboring Fergus, Canada.
Thank God they were able to finally acquire that with his donation!
