Secret multimillionaire lawnmower left his fortune to small town

A New Hampshire man who lived in an unfurnished trailer and rode a lawnmower around his small town died a secret multimillionaire and bequeathed his fortune to the public. He has amassed a net worth of $3.8 million.

Jeffrey Holt of New Hampshire was known as the caretaker of a mobile home park in Hinsdale, where he lived in a similar van without a computer or television and slept on a mattress.

Residents driving through town often saw Jeffrey Holt sitting on a bright orange lawnmower on the side of the road. Sometimes people waved to him as they drove by. Sometimes he waved back. He didn’t leave the city – he didn’t have a car.

He lived a modest life and then donated $3.8 million to his small town in New York State. According to those who knew him, he wanted it that way. Holt, shy and quiet, was content to spend his days hanging around the trailer park where he lived modestly in a mobile home. He led such a quiet life that he disappeared even in a small New Hampshire town with a population of about 4 thousand people.

Holt’s best friend Edwin Smith learned that Jeffrey had made an investment that had more than paid off. Then the former official suggested that Holt think about the community, but did not expect that he would transfer the entire amount to the treasury with instructions to spend it on education, health care, recreation and culture.

“I immediately thought this was the story you hear all the time: the millionaire next door. Someone you would never, ever think of,” city spokeswoman Katherine Lynch told The Washington Post.

Jeffrey Holt was loved in the community. His physical therapist, Jim Ferry, believes that “mowing the lawn was a recreation, he saw it as serving the people he cared about, and those were the people in the trailer park, who I think he really liked.”

“I don’t think anyone had any idea he was so successful. I know he didn’t have a large family, but still, to leave this to the city where he lived… It’s an amazing gift,” said Steve Diorio, chairman of the city’s Board of Elections.

“Jeffrey had learning difficulties. He had dyslexia. He was very smart in certain ways. When it came to writing or spelling, he was hopeless. And my father was a professor. So I think Jeff felt like he was disappointing my dad. But maybe saving all that money was a way to compensate. He learned the importance of not wasting money and investing,” his sister Alison Holt revealed the secret.

Jeffrey Holt has arranged to transfer the investment account to a New Hampshire philanthropic foundation that will administer the fund and issue grants to the city.

“You feel like you won the lottery,” Lynch comments to the American media.

Hinsdale residents were shocked when news of the gift and its unexpected donor spread. At this point, Hinsdale leaders are still deciding how to spend the money, Lynch and Diorio said. Smith suggested that the city, which counts ballots by hand, purchase an electronic voting machine in honor of Holt, who has always voted in elections. The city is also considering naming something in Holt’s memory, according to the chairman of the city’s Board of Elections.

According to officials, Holt’s story spread far beyond Hinsdale, attracting attention from which he had hidden his entire life. What would Holt think if he saw headlines about him now?

“I think it would embarrass him,” Smith said, “but he would be happy that people appreciate what he did.”