March 18, 2003
BILL Seefeldt’s friends thought he was just scraping by, living in a cluttered cabin, clutching coupons and wearing threadbare clothes.
When Seefeldt died last year at 89, he left $US4.6 million ($7.81 million) to the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis.
“He never let on that he had that kind of money,” said Jean Thompson, a friend and music director at Prior Lake’s Church of St Michael, where the retired military chaplain celebrated Mass every Monday until he was 87.
“Father Bill was so tight. He was a cranky old thing, but lovable.”
Seefeldt was a chaplain for 30 years - first for the Army during World War II, then for the Minnesota National Guard and the Minneapolis Veterans Medical Centre.
For the past 20 years, St Michael’s was his spiritual home and family. Once a week he would arrive at the parish office with stale doughnuts or his signature banana bread for the staff, bragging about the deal he got on bananas.
Unlike many members of religious orders, diocesan priests take no vow of poverty. Seefeldt parlayed a family inheritance of $US100,000 ($169,780) and pensions from the Army, civil service and his Social Security into a fortune with the investment advice of Roy Stueve, a friend of 50 years.
“Father Bill had the Midas touch,” Stueve said. “He gave me some money to invest in the market. I said I could lose it all. He said not to worry, the good Lord would provide.”
The Associated Press
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A bargain on bananas - mmm, that’s what I should look for to make some money. Maybe sell em on ebay . . .