There were few clues while they were alive that the professor at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn and his wife, a former teacher, were anything but an ordinary faculty couple.
But by the time they died, Donald and Mildred Othmer had amassed an estate of $750 million. The couple bequeathed hundreds of millions of dollars to charities and institutions, including tiny Polytechnic University, The New York Times reported Monday."Don and Mid had said, `Don't worry, we're putting you in our wills,' " said Arnold Thackray, president of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, a Philadelphia organization dedicated to the history of chemistry and chemical technology. "When someone does that, you smile and say, `Thank you, that's very nice.' "
Thackray never expected that the foundation would receive more than $100 million.
Donald Othmer, who was born in Omaha, Neb., began his lifelong habit of frugality as he earned money as a child picking dandelions from neighbors' lawns and walking a farmer's cow. He went on to become a professor of chemical engineering at Polytechnic.
His wife, Mildred, was a former teacher and buyer for her mother's fashion shops in Omaha.
He died in 1995, and she died in April. Both were in their 90s.
The Othmers were able to amass their fortune by investing their savings with an old family friend from Nebraska: Warren Buffett, the stock market guru who runs the Berkshire Hathaway investment and insurance holding company.
While the Othmers seemed to live relatively unaffected by their wealth, Polytechnic and some of the other designated beneficiaries hope the bequests will allow them to expand and improve.