<text>  It was only after Ronald Reads death last June that his talent for picking successful stocks became public knowledge when he left 6 million to his local library and hospital in Brattleboro, Vermont . A former gas station employee and janitor in Vermont who died last June aged 92 had secretly amassed a fortune of around 8 million thanks to a hidden talent for picking successful stocks. Ronald Reads fortune only became public knowledge after his death when he bequeathed 6 million to his local library and hospital. During his lifetime Read was known to friends and neighbors as a man who sometimes held his coat together with safety pins and had a long-time habit of foraging for firewood. Read, who worked for almost 25 years at Havilands service station in Brattleboro, was known for his flannel jacket and baseball cap. His most expensive possession was a 2007 Toyota Yaris valued at 5,000, which gave no hint of the size of his fortune. If he could save a penny, he would, Bridget Bokum, a senior associate at his local Wells Fargo Advisors office told WSJ. Bokum together with Claire Johns, the executor of Reads will, is currently going through a five-inch-thick stack of stock certificates to determine his exact worth. We all knew he was into the stock market, but not to this extent, said Johns. The secret to Reads financial success was that a well as being a shrewd stock picker, he also displayed remarkable frugality and patience with his shares. At the time of his death Read owned at least 95 stocks, many of which he had held for decades. The secret to Reads success was that a well as being a good stock picker, he displayed remarkable frugality and patience with stocks including Procter Gamble . He had invested across a variety of sectors, including railroads, utility companies, banks, health care, telecom and consumer products but had avoided technology stocks. When Read received dividend checks in the mail he plowed the money back into more shares, said Bokum. Among his longtime holdings were Procter Gamble, J.P. Morgan Chase, General Electric and Dow Chemical. At the time of his death, Read also had large stakes in J.M. Smucker, CVS Health and Johnson Johnson. His portfolio also included some notable failures including Lehman Brothers Holdings, which famously collapsed during the financial crisis in 2008. One of the keys for Reads success was that he was prepared to stick with his picks for long periods of time. In 1959 he bought 39 shares of Pacific Gas Electric for about 2,380 and they are now worth about 10,735. At the time of his death, he owned 578 shares in PGE, worth just over 26,500. When Read died last year he also had large stakes in companies including Johnson Johnson . Secret millionaire in their midst: Ronald Read, left, in his trademark baseball cap, pictured eating Christmas Dinner at the American Legion in Vermont a few years before his death . Stepson Phillip Brown, of Somersworth, New Hampshire, told the Brattleboro Reformer that the only indication Brown had of Reads investments was his regular reading of the Wall Street Journal. I was tremendously surprised, Brown said of Reads hidden wealth. He was a hard worker, but I dont think anybody had an idea that he was a multi-millionaire. Read relied on subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal and Barrons for his investment knowledge, although he also made good use of his local library to which he has bequeathed 1.2 million. He also donated 4.8 million to the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and made a number of smaller bequests. Its pretty incredible. This is not something that happens on a regular basis, said the hospitals development director, Gina Pattison. Gas station employee: Ronald Read worked at Havilands service station for 25 years and even met his wife there in 1960 for whom he was married for 10 years until she died in 1970 . This Google street view shows Ronald Reads modest home and that may even be him pictured in the right corner near his Toyota parked outside . Read was born in Dummerston in 1921. He was the first in his family to graduate from high school, walking and hitchhiking about four miles each way from his home to the high school in Brattleboro. After military service during World War II, he returned to Brattleboro where he worked at a service station for 25 years then worked for 17 years as a janitor at the local J.C. Penney. In 1960 he married a woman he met at the service station but she died in 1970. 