I guess this story slipped past me. Did anybody ever meet this gentleman?
If he hadn't become a SSRfanatic, he should be given Honorary status!!!
GM retiree bequeaths $500,000 to help others
Man who lived modestly leaves gift to foundation
Cleon Mingus was a retired GM worker who loved to tinker with cars and go to auto shows.
He wasn't bad with an investment portfolio, either.
Mingus died May 30 at age 78 - and left more than $500,000 to the Capital Region Community Foundation.
"He lived in a very modest house," Community Foundation President Dennis Fliehman said. "He had his cars - that was his one thing - but he lived a very modest life."
Mingus, who retired in 1987, lived in a two-bedroom one-bath Meridian Township home not far from where he was born in 1929. He housed his cars - including a vintage Chevy El Camino, a shiny, barely driven SSR and a kit car he built himself - in a 24-foot by 40-foot pole barn out back.
Mingus had no children and his wife, Ila, and siblings all died before he did. He asked lawyer and financial adviser Jerry Sutton to help him dispose of his estate.
"He had good feelings about the community," Sutton said. "He wanted the bulk of his estate to benefit the community. He never really deviated from it."
It was Sutton who suggested the Community Foundation, which manages $60 million in assets and uses the interest earned on that money to give about $2.5 million a year in grants to local organizations. Some of its funds are designated for specific groups. The gift from Mingus was unrestricted.
"It allows us to meet the community's greatest charitable needs," Fliehman said.
A gift of $500,000 generates about $25,000 a year in interest that can be distributed to various organizations, Fliehman said.
"The neat thing is that this is from a guy who's just an average Joe," Fliehman said. "A lot of the big gifts come from people who didn't make a lot of money, but saved it."
Sutton said the estate transfer should be complete by early 2009.
GM retiree bequeaths $500,000 to help others | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal
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