Army vet donates $1.5m to VA hospital

Army vet donates $1.5m to VA hospital

By David Mercer - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Oct 6, 2009 20:33:50 EDT

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — After serving in the Korean War, John Wright apparently lived a quiet life in Danville, where he volunteered at the local Veterans Administration hospital but otherwise kept to himself.

As it turns out, Wright was also building a fortune in real estate and other investments worth $1.56 million, all of which he left to the eastern Illinois town’s VA hospital when he died.

The staff and other volunteers he got to know in his 40 years volunteering at the hospital’s recreation therapy section were the closest thing Wright had to family, said Douglas Shouse, a hospital spokesman.

“They were his family,” Shouse said. “On holidays he would go to [meet] the recreation staff for meals.”

His colleagues at the hospital did not know much more about Wright’s life outside the hospital or his military record.

“John was pretty subdued and didn’t really talk about his military service,” Shouse said.
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