He wore holes in his clothes and when orange juice would go on sale he’d buy so much he had to get a new refrigerator to store them all.
But Jack MacDonald didn’t live this way because he had to. He was actually a millionaire. He did it because he wanted to.
MacDonald’s frugal lifestyle left behind an $188 million legacy that would be donated to the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, the University of Washington School of Law, and the Salvation Army when he died at the age of 98.
“Jack went out of his way to look poor, partly because he didn’t want to be badgered by people who wanted money,” his stepdaughter Regen Dennis told the Seattle Times.
MacDonald made his fortune by serving as an attorney for the Veterans Administration for 30 years. He also invested in some good stocks and made a hobby out of investing in the stock market.
Before his death, MacDonald wrote his own obituary when he had a health scare which stated he was “a private man who living frugally, clipping coupons and seeking bargains,” the New York Daily News reports.”
He married his wife, Mary Katherine Moore who had two children of her own when he was his in his 50s. They traveled, hosted dinner parties, and went on adventures together, but still lived a modest lifestyle.
“They were happy the way they were,” Dennis said. “They were very comfortable, and they had a beautiful garden.”
After his wife died, he would spend time doing charitable work at Seattle Children’s.
“He was drawn to the patient stories,” said Doug Picha, president of the Seattle Children’s Foundation. There was a lot of hope in those stories, and that really resonated with him.”
Picha says that MacDonald wasn’t your typical philanthropist.
“I thought of him in many ways as a gentle giant,” Picha said. “He was tall, very shy, very understated, humble. You would have never known that he had great wealth.”
MacDonald was so frugal that he even turned down expensive health treatments.
“It’s so Jack,” said Dennis. “The neurosurgeon is trying to keep the man alive, and he says, ‘I don’t want those expensive brand-name drugs.”
Throughout his lifetime he used his wealth to fund a variety of charitable causes.
“He felt really good about what he was doing with his money, and our family feels good about what he’s doing with his money,” Dennis said.”
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