HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho – John Harrison wore frayed clothing, used a rubber band to keep his billfold from falling apart and saved old pie tins and egg cartons.
He also left $3.5 million to family, friends and institutions after he died.
The former golf course superintendent and longtime Hayden Lake City Council member died in April 2005 at 98.
“A lot of people knew Johnny,” Nancy Morris, his former caregiver, told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “But they didn’t know the man.”
When packing away his belongings, she found bundles of new clothing that he had never worn.
How much he left became known after red tape and taxes on his estate were settled. In his will, he included relatives, a few close friends and various organizations throughout northern Idaho.
“He was just a miser with himself,” said Cort Wilcox, vice president and financial consultant with D.A. Davidson in Coeur d’Alene. “Nothing ever went to waste. He saved Styrofoam meat containers, old pie tins and egg cartons. He came from the Depression, and he wouldn’t act like he had any money.
“The day I told him his investments had gone over $3 million, he told me, ‘That’s too much money for one person.’”
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