In 2007, at an age when most people stop starting things, Ronald Read got his very first library card. He was in his mid-80s.
After that, he came back again and again. His stepson would drive him to Brooks Memorial Library, and he would carry home piles of books.
The librarians had no idea who they were checking books out to.
In his will, he left the library $1.2 million, the largest gift it had ever received.
Library director Jerry Carbone said the news hit "like a thunderbolt." Read, he said, "intrinsically knew the value of a free public library in a community and society."
The rest of the fortune, about $2 million, went to his stepchildren, his caregivers and his friends.
That left Brattleboro with just one question.
How does a man who pumped gas and swept floors end up with $8 million?