Representative Image of Lake Forest College, showcasing students benefiting from a generous scholarship foundation (AI Generated Image)
Contemporary coverage generally described it as about $7 million, while later accounts have cited figures around $7.2 million. Lake Forest College itself describes the gift as more than $7 million, making that the safest figure to use when describing the bequest. The precise value of her estate has been reported somewhat differently over the years.
Her attorney and longtime friend, William Marlatt, told contemporary reporters that Groner could have lived in any house in Lake Forest but chose not to. She lived in a small one-bedroom cottage in Lake Forest rather than moving into a larger or more expensive home.
Grace Groner lived a modest life in Lake Forest, Illinois, despite eventually accumulating a fortune worth more than $7 million. She never married or had children, worked for more than four decades as a secretary at Abbott Laboratories and remained closely connected to Lake Forest College, where she graduated in 1931. When she died in January 2010 at the age of 100, she left her entire estate to a foundation benefiting students at her alma mater. Her fortune had grown from three Abbott shares she purchased for $60 each in 1935, an investment of $180 that she held for the rest of her life. The family helped the sisters attend boarding school and later supported their education at Lake Forest College, where Grace graduated in 1931. Before her death, Groner gave $180,000 to establish a scholarship programme intended to help students pursue internships and study-abroad opportunities. When Groner died in January 2010, the value of the estate revealed the extraordinary scale of the bequest.
The cottage therefore became another way for her modest home to remain connected to the college and its students after her death.
Its current description says the foundation provides financial support to service-oriented students and helps fund service-learning opportunities in their communities, nationally and internationally. The foundation says two female Lake Forest College seniors are invited to live there each year as Grace’s guests. Groner’s relationship with Lake Forest College began long before her fortune was known. She and her twin sister, Gladys, were orphaned when they were children and were taken in by the Anderson family of Lake Forest. She remained involved with the college for decades after graduating. She also continued attending college events and maintaining a connection with the institution. Groner’s charitable giving extended beyond the college. Contemporary reporting described her as someone who regularly made smaller donations to local causes, sometimes anonymously. Her lifelong pattern of giving meant that Lake Forest College knew her as a generous supporter, even though the institution did not know the full scale of her wealth. Groner had arranged for her estate to benefit Lake Forest College through a foundation. College president Stephen Schutt knew for more than a year before her death that she intended to leave her estate to the institution, but he did not know the eventual size of the gift. The Grace Elizabeth Groner Foundation was established to support qualified Lake Forest College students. This includes opportunities that allow students to undertake service projects as part of their educational experience. Groner’s former home also became part of her legacy. She left the cottage to Lake Forest College, and it became known as Grace’s Cottage.
Groner and her twin sister, Gladys, had been orphaned as children before the Anderson family took them in and helped support their education.