Starting Salary: $13 a Week; Pension: Nearly $1 Million : Windfall: North Carolina newspaper retiree hasn’t altered his lifestyle. He still lives in the same five-room house, drives the same car and gives 10% to his church.

Bob Huggins started at the Gaston Gazette in 1926, working in the composing room for $13 a week. He never earned a lot of money--”I’ve never been a big spender”--and he retired last November.

Then came the surprise of his life.

Huggins, 86, was summoned by the newspaper’s publisher and informed that he would receive the largest non-executive pension in the history of the Freedom Newspapers chain--$930,000, paid out in monthly installments of nearly $7,000.

“That’s staggering, brother, that’s staggering,” he said.

Fast forward, nearly six months later. Huggins still lives in the same five-room house he bought for $7,600 in 1942. In his driveway sits the same Chevrolet he has driven for seven years.

“I’ve had to be stingy all my life,” he said as he sat on his well-worn couch, surrounded by photographs of his late wife, Johnsie.

“This is my house and it’s paid for. I don’t owe no man a penny. I’ve never gone into debt,” he said. “The only bills I have are for my lights, water and telephone.”

Maybe he’ll buy a plane ticket to San Diego to visit his elder daughter, Barbara, and his grandchildren. He’s happy to open his purse to his church. But he has found little else to tempt him to dip into his fortune.

“My father never expected more than he put into something,” said his daughter, Sylvia Skipper of Gastonia. “He also never had any hobbies. He was devoted to his family, his church and his job.”

Huggins earned less than $20 a week during his first five years at the Gazette. He later learned to set type and eventually set the front page. When the Gazette went to computer-generated type in 1974, Huggins became a security guard, locking doors and escorting employees to their cars.

Then he retired, and hit the jackpot.

“The publisher, Mr. (Mike) McMillan, told me I was the longest-serving employee for Freedom Newspapers,” he said. “When he brought up my pension, I figured he was talking about $300 or $400 (a month).”

The company explained that the retirement plan is paid from a pool of money invested to employees who are grouped according to age. For example, if 10 people were set to retire in one year, a certain amount of money was set aside.

Because Huggins was the only person alive in his group, all the remaining money went to him.

By all accounts, he is utterly unchanged by the windfall.

“He’s probably deserving of the title of Mr. Consistency,” said his pastor, the Rev. Ned Mathews. “He’s the same fellow day in and day out.”

Huggins still does morning exercises and walks at the mall several times a week. He still stops by the Gazette every morning for the paper and chats with his buddies. He works in the yard and naps in the afternoon, watches television or reads after dinner.

The church found out just how consistent Huggins could be when he began getting his monthly pension payments.

“Up until his retirement, he never had a lot of money, but whatever he had he always gave one-tenth,” Mathews said.

He still does. But now Huggins’ monthly payment to the church he helped found amounts to nearly $700.

“I grew up in a tithing family. It was the only way I knew how to give,” he explained. “I believe it has helped me prosper, not only in terms of money. I have enjoyed good health, a good wife and two daughters.”

On Tuesdays, he joins Mathews for church visitation.

“When we first heard about his pension, I was taking Bob along on one of our calls,” Mathews recalled.

“I remember him telling me that he wished they would hurry up and give him some of the money. I thought, of course, he was thinking about buying something for himself. But it was because a fund-raising drive for our foreign missions was coming up. As always, he was thinking of others.”

Others have been thinking of him too. Since his retirement, Huggins has heard from lots of strangers, including some who sent him letters asking for money.

“This one came from a woman who says she lost her home and her car,” he said, holding a hand-printed envelope. “I also get a lot of letters from preachers.”

He’s even received a handful of marriage proposals, but he’s not biting.

“I was married to one woman for 52 years,” he said, “and that’s enough for any man.”

He has made one concession to his newfound wealth, however. Sylvia Skipper recently convinced her father to start an investment portfolio.

“He’s never been frivolous,” she said. “He won’t even use the air conditioner in the summer. He’s always denied himself a lot, but he doesn’t see it that way.”

“His needs are being met. He has his little house and he always has been surrounded by wonderful people. I figure the Lord gave this to him, and we should allow him to enjoy it as long as he’s here.”