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An Indianapolis resident named Terry Kahn, who passed away in 2021, was recently revealed to be a secret millionaire by his lawyer, Dwayne Isaacs. Terry Kahn’s attorney told CBS News in an interview that Terry had behind $13 million to charity.
However, he added that Kahn hadn't specified the names of the charities or individuals who would receive his fortune, leaving Isaacs in charge of deciding who gets what. The attorney also went on to describe Terry Kahn as “unbelievably frugal."
Terry Kahn was an employee of the Veterans Administration
According to the New York Post, Terry Kahn was an employee of the Veterans Administration for over three decades, before his death in 2021. He did not have any immediate family and lived in the south of Indianapolis, Indiana.
According to his lawyer’s statement to CBS News, Terry Kahn was so frugal that he lived in a simple house and drove an old Honda. He also reportedly refused to carry a cell phone because he thought they were expensive. Before his demise in 2021, he reportedly claimed that he wanted no announcement or obituary.
Daily Mail also reported that Kahn had a sister and they originally grew up in Tucson, Arizona. He later studied Psychology and Public Administration at the University of Southern California and was a tennis enthusiast.
The attorney and Terry Kahn met each other in the mid-1990s when Isaacs worked with the Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, a grant-making group. Since then, until his death, Kahn, whose parents immigrated to the USA from Nazi-occupied Germany, met Isaacs once a month for lunch. Over lunch, the two would talk about Kahn's legal affairs and personal life, according to The Mirror.
The news outlet also reported that Kahn served in the US Army for three years in Vietnam. Following that, he moved back home to a working-class neighborhood in Indianapolis in 1976. He also had an estranged nephew and a niece from his sister who died in her 40s, and he reportedly remained a bachelor all his life.
Which charities got Terry Kahn’s fortune?
According to the New York Post, Kahn’s fortune was distributed fairly by his lawyer Dwayne Isaacs over the past two years.
Emmy Hildebrand, the CEO of Helping Veterans and Families of Indiana received 1 million for his non-profit and said she was shocked about the generous donation. He said that the first thing the lawyer asked him was what he would do with the $1 million.
Margaret Sheehan, the executive director of Teachers’ Treasures was equally stunned by Issacs’ call when he said that he was about to donate $1.5 million to her charity. According to The New York Post, this was nearly twice the organization's annual budget. The organization is a free store for educators in need of classroom supplies to teach the underprivileged community.
“It was an act of amazing kindness to which I responded, ‘I need to sit down',” Sheehan said.
Julie Henson, vice president of development for domestic violence survivors shelter Coburn Place reminisced how she and her colleagues wondered whether the offer was real or not.
Terry’s attorney also confirmed that his calls were dodged by many non-profits who thought he was running a scam, while others lost as they did not return his calls. Meanwhile, roughly a dozen local charitable organizations based in Indiana received a large amount, each nearly half a million dollars, from the Kahn fund.
