A secretary turned $180 into $7.2 million by holding her employer’s stock for 75 years

• A secretary bought three shares of her company’s stock for $60 each in 1935.
• Grace Groner reinvested her dividends for 75 years, and her stake ballooned to $7.2 million.
• Her employer, Abbott, shared Groner’s story in a recent website post.

A secretary paid $180 in 1935 for three shares of her employer’s stock. By the time she died in 2010, her investment had mushroomed to $7.2 million.

Abbott, a pharmaceutical company, gave a shout-out to the former employee in a recent post on its website.

“As we celebrate 101 years of dividend payouts, we’re remembering one of the earliest Abbott investing success stories, that of Grace Groner, who worked as a secretary at Abbott for over 40 years,” the post reads.

“In 1935, Groner bought three shares of Abbott stock for $60 each. She consistently reinvested her dividend payments and quietly amassed a $7.2 million fortune. Groner passed away in 2010, at the age of 100, and it was only then that her multimillion-dollar estate was discovered.”

She gifted her entire fortune to a foundation she’d established in support of her alma mater, Lake Forest College. She earmarked the money to finance internships, international study, and service projects for students.

Groner hung onto her Abbott shares for over 75 years without selling a single one, despite several stock splits, and used her dividends to bolster her stake.

She was likely able to leave her nest egg intact for so long because of her simple lifestyle. She lived in a one-bedroom house, bought her clothes at rummage sales, and didn’t own a car, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2010.

Her shares would be worth north of $28 million today, excluding dividends, given that Abbott’s stock price has roughly quadrupled since 2010. The drugmaker’s market value has risen to around $200 billion, meaning it now rivals Disney, PepsiCo, and Morgan Stanley in size.