Drifter leaves a big legacy in small bills

For years after he retired from a Chicago-area foundry, master mechanic John R. Grant traveled in his white Ford cargo van, spending time in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and the Chicago suburbs.

His last stop came in late March when Grant, 82, died of lung cancer at a motel in Sheldon, Iowa, a town of about 5,000.

The former Calumet City, Ill., resident, whom police described as a transient, surprised everyone with what he left behind in Room 20: $263,000 in small bills inside a vinyl cassette-tape case.

“It was quite a big deal around here for a while,” said Capt. Jamison Van Voorst of the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office. The news only recently spread beyond the town.

The county attorney’s office hired lawyer Thomas Worley to search for an heir when it was determined that Grant had left no will.

“It was his life savings, all in 5s, 10s, 20s and 50s, mostly. We had a lot of counting to do,” Worley said.

Working from military discharge papers and other personal artifacts in his motel room and van, police determined he was a World War II veteran who spent at least 20 years working for the Blaw-Knox foundry in the Chicago area.

He was buried with military honors at the Iowa National Cemetery in Keokuk.

Police tracked down a brother in Japan and cousin in the Chicago suburbs. But the rightful heir -- Sarah Snyder, 27 -- eventually was found in Winter Garden, Fla.

Snyder was working two jobs and dreaming of going to college when she got a phone call that her grandfather, whom she had not seen since age 9, had left behind the means for her to pursue a dream, she said. This fall, Snyder became a part-time student in international business -- though still renting a room and working full time as a bank teller.

She can’t figure out why her grandfather lived as he did, but is thankful for what he left her.

“I just remembered that I looked forward every summer to when Grandpa John came [to visit] in his camper,” said Snyder, who was then living in a small upstate New York town. “All of a sudden it stopped, and I never found out why.”

Snyder, who believes she and her grandpa fished together during those summer visits, said she learned of his death when a search firm contacted her in July. She was told he had spent years gathering the pile of cash that fell into her frugal life.

Her mother, Pamela, who was Grant’s only child, died of cancer about five years ago. Her father, Tim, a mason, lives in upstate New York.

Investigators do not know why Grant lived out of his truck when he had so much cash. He left no notes, letters or journals, Van Voorst said, and no one in town seemed to know Grant.

Besides the cash, police found tools, many stored in cubbyholes Grant had specially built into his van, Worley said.

“In my 30-plus years of practicing law, it’s a pretty unusual case,” he said. “It ultimately had a happy ending. I’m very pleased for this young lady.”