Maybe no one ever called her that in her first 100 years. Orphaned at 12, taken in by family and friends until she was adopted, Grace Groner worked as a secretary for 43 years. She bought her clothes at rummage sales, never owned a car and lived alone in a one-bedroom cottage. Today, 1,300 Lake Forest (Ill.) College students who will have scholarships, internships and studies abroad because of her call her "Amazing Grace."
When she died in January at age 100, Groner left $7 million to her alma mater, Lake Forest College. She never sold the three shares of Abbott Laboratories stock she bought in 1935 for $180. When she died, after many stock splits and dividends reinvested, her initial investment had grown into a $7 million fortune.
Last week, I listened to a professor sound off about "this generation," meaning his college students. He stereotyped them as addicts to "instant gratification and instant communication." His caricature would be one of his students wolfing down a Big Mac (instant food paid for with instant — plastic — money), text-messaging with the other hand ("im chewing bm now") while steering the car with his knees.
John McPhee, 79-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Princeton professor and author of 25 books, claims he hardly ever has written more than one single-spaced page a day. "If you put an ounce in a bucket every day," he explained, "before you know it, you have a quart."
Aesop's ancient story about the turtle and the hare may be truer in our times than ever. There's still something to be said for eschewing immediate pleasure for taking a longer view of things; something to be said for the discipline and perseverance of the turtle. Or John McPhee. Or Amazing Grace.
When she died in January at age 100, Groner left $7 million to her alma mater, Lake Forest College. She never sold the three shares of Abbott Laboratories stock she bought in 1935 for $180. When she died, after many stock splits and dividends reinvested, her initial investment had grown into a $7 million fortune.
Last week, I listened to a professor sound off about "this generation," meaning his college students. He stereotyped them as addicts to "instant gratification and instant communication." His caricature would be one of his students wolfing down a Big Mac (instant food paid for with instant — plastic — money), text-messaging with the other hand ("im chewing bm now") while steering the car with his knees.
John McPhee, 79-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Princeton professor and author of 25 books, claims he hardly ever has written more than one single-spaced page a day. "If you put an ounce in a bucket every day," he explained, "before you know it, you have a quart."
Aesop's ancient story about the turtle and the hare may be truer in our times than ever. There's still something to be said for eschewing immediate pleasure for taking a longer view of things; something to be said for the discipline and perseverance of the turtle. Or John McPhee. Or Amazing Grace.
