N
ot every working-class
benefactor scrimped and
saved. Kathleen Magowan, a
teacher from Simsbury, Connecticut,
had no idea she was rich until just be-
fore she died in 2011, at age 87. Not
long before she passed away, she vis-
ited a small law firm for help manag-
ing her estate. When they asked how
much she thought it was worth, Ma-
gowan guessed around $40,000. The
real number: $6 million.
Magowan’s twin brother, Robert
Magowan, had always managed their
finances. They had lived together un-
til he died in 2010. “She never had a
demand for that kind of money,” her
attorney, Louis George, told the Hart-
ford Courant.
Some would go on a shopping spree
if they became millionaires overnight.
Magowan turned to charity. Her will
outlined $5 million in bequests to
15 organizations, along with gifts to
relatives and neighbors. She left close
to half a million each to her alma ma-
ter, the University of St. Joseph in West
Hartford; the McLean nursing home
where she spent her final days; and
the Simsbury public schools, where
she had taught first grade for 35 years.
“All of us remember her very muchas the schoolteacher who always had
a twinkle in her eye,” Deene Morris,
the former fund-raising director at
McLean, told the Hartford Courant.
“She loved engaging in conversa-
tion with all sorts of different people,
and everyone loved talking to her. A
schoolteacher. That’s how she lived in
our hearts.”The Twin
Kathleen Magowan’s twin brother had
managed her finances, so she was
shocked to discover she had $6 million.Tidbit from Your Fitbit
“Something’s wrong. He’s never walked this far before.”
—What my shoes would say if you walked a mile in them
@ibid78Good Deeds Reader’s Digestrd.com | february 2019 79