Bequest from The Blue:

As an unkempt, minimum-wage janitor at Bethany College in Bethany, W. Va., for 30 years, Larry Hummel spent his days picking up litter and his nights alone in a small apartment over a garage. His habit of reading the Wall Street Journal and asking economics professors about the stock market seemed a minor eccentricity. But since his death last month at age 82, Hummel has become a major hero. In his will, he left Bethany (enrollment: 800) a bequest that may eventually be worth as much as $1 million.

Evidently Hummel had parlayed his savings and his share of the proceeds from the sale of a family dairy farm into a small fortune in securities. Recalls Forrest Kirkpatrick, an economics professor and the school’s faculty dean: “He used to ask me what I thought of utilities, metals and railroads. I thought he was thinking of buying two or three shares, not 5,000.”