Friends called him notoriously frugal all his life — until death revealed he’d secretly left millions to charity

For years, Jack MacDonald was known in his Seattle neighborhood as a quiet, frugal man who took the bus, clipped coupons, and lived in a modest one-bedroom apartment. No one could have guessed that behind that modest life was a secret worth nearly $188 million — one he kept hidden until after his death. According to ABC News, when MacDonald passed away at 98, his family revealed that he had left his entire fortune to three Washington-based charities: Seattle Children’s Hospital, the University of Washington School of Law, and the Salvation Army.

His stepdaughter, Regen Dennis, said very few people knew the truth. "Our family has lived with the secret of Jack’s generous fortune for more than 40 years," she said. "He was quirky and eccentric in many ways, and always stayed true to himself by acting on his convictions to do the most good with his wealth." A retired attorney who worked for the Veterans Administration, MacDonald lived simply but invested relentlessly. He inherited a modest sum from his parents and grew it through decades of studying the stock market. "His hobby was the stock market," said one family friend. "He delighted in watching his trust increase in value to benefit local charities." He treated investing like a game of patience, always hunting for value, reinvesting gains, and clipping coupons on the side.

Doug Picha, president of the Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation, had known MacDonald for 30 years. He said MacDonald was "proper and old-school, but very shy." He added, "He loved a good deal. He clipped coupons, and his shirt was maybe just a little tattered." At one point, MacDonald bought so many cans of frozen orange juice on sale that he had to buy an extra freezer to hold them. When he passed away, his will revealed that he had left his entire estate to three institutions in Washington state: 40% to Seattle Children’s Hospital for pediatric research, 30% to the University of Washington School of Law for scholarships, and the remainder to the Salvation Army, which received $2.8 million in its first year from the trust.

MacDonald’s ties to those causes went back decades. His mother had volunteered at Seattle Children’s, and he remained involved long after her death. He was also a proud graduate of the University of Washington Law School. "I think he just really enjoyed the fact that all of this wealth would be transferred onto those three charities," said Picha. "He felt he was a steward of his parents’ funds." MacDonald never saw his investments as personal gain. He saw them as a responsibility. "He wanted to be a philanthropist," Picha recalled, "and he will be."

Financial writers later pointed out that his story mirrored that of other so-called "secret millionaires" — ordinary workers who secretly built large fortunes through steady investing and frugal living. By the time he died, MacDonald had benefited from nearly 75 years of compounding returns. One analyst, Joshua Kennon, who is a Managing Director of Kennon-Green & Co., a private asset management firm, estimated that a $1,000 investment made when he turned 18 could have grown to more than $2 million by the end of his life, and MacDonald was doing far better than average. He wanted every extra dollar to go toward something bigger than himself. Asked once how he hoped to be remembered, MacDonald gave a one-word answer: "Philanthropist."

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