For most of his working life, Ronald Read had ordinary jobs in Vermont. He spent roughly 25 years at a gas station and later worked for 17 years as a janitor at J.C. Penney. He left the store in 1997.
Nothing about those jobs suggested that Read was quietly building a multimillion-dollar portfolio. That changed after his death in 2014, when he was 92. His estate was valued at nearly $8 million, including stocks and property. Much of that wealth had accumulated without attracting public attention.
