SCOTT DEPOT, W.Va. — Work, family and God have long been the three most important things in Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whittaker Jr.'s life.
A $113.4 million Powerball payout from the Multi-State Lottery Association is doing nothing to change that.
Whittaker, 55, is a millionaire contractor whose three businesses often require him to work 90-hour weeks.
But despite holding history's largest single lottery ticket, and despite painful bouts of pancreatitis and other intestinal ailments that have cost him his spleen and half his pancreas and have required eight operations in eight years, Whittaker wants to keep working.
Throughout his life Whittaker has employed family members, in part to keep them close. His 33-year-old daughter, Ginger McMahan, recalls working at her dad's office at the age of 5.
Whittaker says he has few plans for himself but wants to lavish his winnings on Ginger and his granddaughter, Brandi Bragg, 15.
As an adult, Whittaker has always tithed 10 percent of his earnings to his church, the Church of God.
He now plans to provide $17 million, or 10 percent of his gross lottery winnings, to three Church of God pastors.
The pastors — in Hurricane, a bedroom community between Charleston and Huntington; in Jumping Branch, Whittaker's hometown near the Virginia border; and a third who now lives in California — will administer a fund he wants to create to help the poor.
"Those three pastors have stood by us when we were sick, prayed for us when we were in need and comforted us when were afflicted," Whittaker said. "They've touched our lives, and I'd trust them with anything I have."
Waiting at Yeager Airport in Charleston for a Thursday night flight to New York City, where he appeared on a news shows this morning, Whittaker credited faith for his lottery win.
"My life has been blessed since I was a teenager," he said. "I've always had plenty of work, plenty of whatever I've wanted. I've always felt blessed to be alive, even when I've been sick or my family members have been sick."
Reached at his New York City hotel room Thursday night, Whittaker said his only sightseeing in New York would be a trip to the World Trade Center site so he could "say a little prayer" for the people killed there last year.
Whittaker and his wife of 36 years, Jewell, have seen many recent traumas. Friends say eight family members have died since 1994, and Ginger has suffered through two bouts of Hodgkin's lymphoma, now in remission.
That faith is also the bedrock of Whittaker's remarkable, matter-of-fact calm in the face of extraordinary circumstances.
"I truly believe this is an opportunity for me to give testimony about tithing and spreading wealth," Whittaker said.