Pennies Saved by Janitor Add Up to $300,000 Bequest

Fred Thompson didn’t have a phone, didn’t have a car, didn’t heat his house and gave up Medicare coverage to save the $18-a-month premium after he retired as a janitor.

It added up. Thompson amassed nearly $300,000.

When he died last year at age 81, he left it all to three state universities to spend on teaching scholarships. Each of Oregon’s three largest state schools received $95,197 from Thompson’s estate. The donation was announced last week.

“It was all his money,” said Bob Farnes, Thompson’s financial planner. “He never got an inheritance; he just lived his life simply.”

Thompson worked as a custodian for Portland public schools. He saved first from his salary and later from his $1,200-a-month retirement income, Farnes said.

His wife died before he retired, and for the last 20 years of his life, Thompson lived alone in the small, $40,000 house he had paid off years before. The Thompsons had no children.

Thompson gave up Medicare to save the premium. He didn’t have a phone. He walked or took the bus rather than buy a car.

“I’d go over to his house in January and it would be freezing cold,” Farnes said. “He’d tell me heating oil was too expensive.”

When Thompson’s television set blew out three years before his death, he went to Farnes and said he wanted to buy a big-screen TV and a satellite dish.

“I thought, great! He’s finally going to spend some of his money on himself,” Farnes said. But when Farnes got a price estimate, Thompson balked and said he couldn’t spend that kind of money.