 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Back
|
The millionaires next door
By MICHAEL SANDLER, Times Staff Writer
His wife Edith was no different. She bought her coats at church rummage sales and carried plastic bags to buffet restaurants to stretch one meal into two. Thrifty. Odd. Tight. Eccentric. Neighbors at the mobile home park where they lived used those words to describe the Midwest couple, who retired here. What they never knew was the Marhoffs were rich -- really rich -- Depression-era millionaires who socked away money for a rainy day they never saw. Hudson died in 1993. Edith, 81, died in October. They left nearly $4.5-million, and now it's all about to go to charity. "They lived on their Social Security and did not spend a dime of the money we earned for them," said Earl Slosberg, their financial adviser. He met the Marhoffs 12 years ago and helped them turn nearly $800,000 in savings into the fortune he will distribute in checks ranging from $400,000 to $600,000 to eight charities Jan. 30. Even toward the end, Mrs. Marhoff resisted tapping into the nest egg. Her nurses pleaded with her to at least spend on her health. She suffered a stroke and possibly had Parkinson's disease. "She just was very frugal," said Ruth Fanovich, a registered nurse who cared for Mrs. Marhoff during her last five years. "It took me a long time to get her to understand she had money, and that it would take her a thousand years to spend." RetirementDetails about how Mrs. Marhoff and her husband lived outside Florida remain a mystery. Friends say they lived in Chicago, where Hudson worked for the federal government in engineering and Edith was a beauty queen. When they came to Florida in the early 1960s, people learned that Marhoff could handle tools. He tinkered in the carport, a no-no at his mobile home park. He read Popular Mechanics and found devices he could install in his car to improve its mileage. He often volunteered to drive his neighbors and friends, as long as they understood he would keep it under 40. "It takes more gas, he'd say," said John Snyder, who met the Marhoffs at St. Paul's United Methodist Church. Marhoff's penny pinching drove friends crazy but that never mattered. His wife loved him for his good sense. That's what counted. They frequented markets and restaurants that offered free samples. And to save money on a trip to Greece, the couple traveled on a cargo ship. And they danced. Rumor at Lake Placid mobile home park is the Marhoffs taught dancing in Chicago. When they waltzed during Christmas parties at the club house, they lit up the room. "Hudson played the organ, too," said Avis Clark, 80. "He was good. Had no idea what he played, but it was beautiful music." WealthSlosberg, president of Earl and Associates, said the couple brought him nearly $800,000 in the late 1980s. He put it into tax-deferred mutual funds, then fixed annuities "If they don't take out the money, it's never reportable to the government for taxes," said Slosberg. "They loved that." The money continued to grow. So did a tumor in Hudson Marhoff's brain. He found out about it during a routine physical in 1993. "He was perfectly healthy," Slosberg said. "When doctors finished examining, they told Edith to call Hospice." He died a week later at 83. "Hudson was the finest gentleman I ever met," Slosberg said. Learning to spendEven after she suffered a stroke, and her husband was no longer around to fix things, her impulse was to save "She wouldn't even let me buy her an electric wheelchair," said Slosberg, who tried to tell her she had enough money for a fleet of Rolls Royces. "It took me two years to talk her into that, because there was money involved. "I'd tell her, "You could move into the Sheraton Hotel, move into the penthouse suite and have people wait on you hand and foot,' " Slosberg said. "She used to laugh at me." Fanovich, a registered nurse who works with elderly patients, finally had a little luck. "I told her Hudson would want her to spend it," Fanovich said. "Probably the hardest thing for Edith was to live without Hudson. But she learned to enjoy her beautiful memories. So many people have all this horrendous illnesses. She never complained." After Mrs. Marhoff died, the only people at her funeral were nurses and financial advisers. Now, the fortune the Marhoffs clasped will be spent on hotel rooms for cancer patients, dial-a-prayer phone lines at a church and shelters for abused women. The charities she picked are happy to have the money, especially after Sept. 11 when most donations are being sent to New York. "We have no idea who she was," said Stephany Dawson a spokeswoman for Religious Community Services, a shelter in Clearwater for the abused, homeless and hungry. "As far as we know, there is no tie to volunteering. It's not a name that rings a bell. But it certainly is going to make things a lot easier, especially with donations down right now." All of the money must be spent locally, except the prayer lines. That was her dying wish, and Slosberg has every intention of making sure that happens. - Michael Sandler can be reached at 445-4174 or sandler@sptimes.com. Charities that will benefitHere are the charities that will receive money from the $4.5-million estate of Edith Marhoff:
-- Source: Earl Slosberg, president of Earl and Associates
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
Headlines From the Times local news desks |
