Teacher Leaves $6.8 Million
to Boston Public Library
A retired public school teacher who spent his days studying the stock market at the Boston Public Library left his entire $6.8-million estate to the library’s Kirstein Business Branch. The bequest, announced December 7 by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, is the largest donation from an individual in the library’s 152-year history.
Thomas R. Drey Jr., who died in 1997, lived modestly in the house he grew up in and parlayed a small inheritance from his father into a multimillion-dollar fortune. “This was a simple individual who wanted to say thank you to a system that allowed him to be successful in life,” Menino told the December 7 Boston Globe. “He is making sure that the next generation can invest in that knowledge and be successful like him.”
The donation will be used to expand the business branch’s hours, purchase additional computers and online databases, and boost its periodical and book collections.
Posted December 11, 2000.
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