每年的奧斯卡獎對我來說沒有任何吸引力，原因是我隻喜歡好萊塢明星們的臉蛋，卻從來不喜歡他們的為人, 奧斯卡獎頒獎的地點是不變的柯達劇院，好萊塢雲雲眾眾美女帥哥，富婆，花少有錢的人多極了，他們的豪宅有貴到5000萬美元的，頂級帥哥湯姆克魯茲為離婚就要化掉1億美元的，卻沒有一個明星出來捐一筆錢建一座比柯達劇院更氣派的奧斯卡獎頒獎場地了，更不要說好吧起眼幾乎有點破爛的星光大道了，如今百年老店柯達公司已經破產，隻給人們留下了唯一的記憶亮點柯達劇院。加州的中小學和大學如今都缺錢，也沒見明星們作點事情。
住在芝加哥以北的小城市-森林湖市美國百歲人瑞葛麗絲•葛洛納今年1月辭世，遺贈700萬美元給伊利諾伊州母校森林湖學院。終身未婚的她，靠43年秘書生涯的薪水，是如何存下這筆巨款而捐給她的母校的！
葛洛納，她一向生活簡樸，但不吝嗇，生前已為母校設立獎學金，陸續捐贈了大約18萬美元。但她覺得還不夠，兩年前成立基金會，準備把財產捐給母校。她的律師和多年老友馬拉特把這筆遺贈通知校長時，700萬美元的龐大金額把校長嚇了一大跳。葛洛納無私的奉獻傳為佳話，大家更好奇的是，究竟她是如何存下700萬美元？森林湖是富人小區，當地豪宅林立、名車滿街跑，葛洛納也可以享受富裕的生活，但她選擇住在隻有一個房間 的小屋，也不買汽車，出門都是走路。她身上穿的是廉價衣服或二手衣、電視機是笨重的淘汰機型。但她可不小氣，退休後四處旅行，並透過馬拉特匿名捐贈禮物給 當地居民。
葛洛納12歲時成為孤兒，和雙胞胎姊妹一起被收養，養父母供她接受大學教育。1931年大學畢業後，她進入亞培藥廠擔任秘書，一做就是43年。 和許多經曆過經濟“大蕭條”的人一樣，葛洛納對金錢支出十分謹慎，除了省吃儉用，她的財富起源於1935年開始的第一筆180美元股票投資。
她以60美元價格認購三股亞培股票，經過多次配股，又把股利再投入買股票。加上亞培股價節節高升，葛洛納去世時，當初180美元的投資已滾到700萬 美元。葛洛納的遺產讓森林湖學院每年可有30萬美元收入，讓該校1300名學生可拿獎學金實習和出國進修。葛洛納也把她的小房子捐給母校，給領取獎學金的 女學生當宿舍，這間宿舍就定名為“葛麗絲小屋”。
葛洛納這樣的女士才是我非常敬重的人，人的一生其時很短暫，過份的追求個人享受是不足取的，特別是損人利己的生活更是不恥的行為！我們的生命隻會一代一代的傳延下去的，我們的太陽係，地球總有終結的一天的，作為人類最高的境界和願望就是推動人類文明的發展和延續，實現這個目標也隻有通過發展教育科技才你能成功，對科學教育有貢獻的人才是地球文明中永存的名子。
Like many people who lived through the Great Depression, Grace Groner was exceptionally restrained with her money.
She got her clothes from rummage sales. She walked everywhere rather than buy a car. And her one-bedroom house in Lake Forest held little more than a few plain pieces of furniture, some mismatched dishes and a hulking TV set that appeared left over from the Johnson administration.
Her one splurge was a small scholarship program she had created for Lake Forest College, her alma mater. She planned to contribute more upon her death, and when she passed away in January, at the age of 100, her attorney informed the college president what that gift added up to.
"Oh, my God," the president said.
Groner's estate, which stemmed from a $180 stock purchase she made in 1935, was worth $7 million.
The money is going into a foundation that will enable many of Lake Forest's 1,300 students to pursue internships and study-abroad programs they otherwise might have had to forgo. It will be an appropriate memorial to a woman whose life was a testament to the higher possibilities of wealth.
"She did not have the (material) needs that other people have," said William Marlatt, her attorney and longtime friend. "She could have lived in any house in Lake Forest but she chose not to. … She enjoyed other people, and every friend she had was a friend for who she was. They weren't friends for what she had."
Groner was born in a small Lake County farming community, but by the time she was 12 both of her parents had died. She was taken in by George Anderson, a member of one of Lake Forest's leading families and an apparent friend to Groner's parents.
The Andersons raised her and her twin sister, Gladys, and paid for them to attend Lake Forest College. After Groner graduated in 1931, she took a job at nearby Abbott Laboratories, where she would work as a secretary for 43 years.
It was early in her time there that she made a decision that would secure her financial future.
In 1935, she bought three $60 shares of specially issued Abbott stock and never sold them. The shares split many times over the next seven decades, Marlatt said, and Groner reinvested the dividends. Long before she died, her initial outlay had become a fortune.
Marlatt was one of the few who knew about it. Lake Forest is one of America's richest towns, filled with grand estates and teeming with luxury cars, yet Groner felt no urge to keep up with the neighbors.
She lived in an apartment for many years before a friend willed her a tiny house in a part of town once reserved for the servants. Its single bedroom could barely accommodate a twin bed and dresser; its living room was undoubtedly smaller than many Lake Forest closets.
Though Groner was frugal, she was no miser. She traveled widely upon her retirement from Abbott, volunteered for decades at the First Pre*****yterian Church and occasionally funneled anonymous gifts through Marlatt to needy local residents.
"She was very sensitive to people not having a whole lot," said Pastor Kent Kinney of First Pre*****yterian. "Grace would see those people, would know them, and she would make gifts."
Groner never wed or had children — the sister of one prospective groom blocked the marriage, Marlatt said — but with her gregarious personality she had plenty of friends. She remained connected to Lake Forest College, too, attending football games and cultural events on campus and donating $180,000 for a scholarship program.
That allowed a few students a year to study internationally, including Erin McGinley, 34, a junior from Lake Zurich. She traveled to Falmouth, Jamaica, to help document and preserve historic buildings in the former slave port. The experience was so satisfying that she is trying to get Lake Forest to create a similar architectural preservation program.
"It affected my (career ambitions) in a way I didn't expect," she said.
But Groner was interested in doing more, so two years ago she set up a foundation to receive her estate. Stephen Schutt, Lake Forest's president, knew of the plan for the past year, but had no idea how large the gift would be until after Groner passed away Jan. 19.
The foundation's millions should generate more than $300,000 a year for the college, enabling dozens more students to travel and pursue internships. Many probably wouldn't be able to pursue those opportunities without a scholarship: 75 percent of the student body receives financial aid, Schutt said.
But the study and internship program is not the end of Groner's legacy. She left that small house to the college, too. It will be turned into living quarters for women who receive foundation scholarships, and perhaps something more: an enduring symbol that money can buy far more than mansions.
It will be called, with fitting simplicity, "Grace's Cottage."
