Brighten Your Day

98-Year-Old Turns $1,000 In Stock Into $2 Million And Donates It All To Wildlife

June 5, 2017

70 years ago, Russ Gremel decided to buy about $1,000 worth of stock in Walgreens. By the time Gremel hit his late 90s, the stock was worth more than $2 million.

Photos via Fox 32 News

The now 98-year-old Chicagoan donated the stock to the Illinois Audubon Society, which used the money to establish a 400-acre wildlife refuge near Dixon, Illinois.

This weekend, the Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary was dedicated in his name.

"It's incredibly generous," Illinois Audubon Society executive director Jim Herkert said of the donation. "It's allowing us to protect a really valuable and important piece of property and fulfill one of Russ' wishes that we could find a place where people could come out and experience and enjoy nature the way he did as a kid."

Gremel never married and never had kids. He said he wanted to see the money be put to good use before he died.

"You have to do some good in this world, that's what money is for," Gremel told the Chicago Tribune.