In loving memory

Like the rest of the world, I was shocked at the news that those two crazy kids from out west, Bill and Melinda Gates, were calling their marriage a closed file. I always had the impression they were like any other married couple - both working, saving, scrimping, somehow coming up with enough money to go to the beach for a week in summer OR buy a nation in the Balkans. 

It's nice to have options.

Hey, we even saw Bill, like any other schlub, waiting in line for burgers instead of just buying the burger joint.

It did come as a surprise to find that a little-known codicil in the Gates marriage contract allowed him to have an annual getaway weekend with his ex-girlfriend, one Ann Winblad. The news reported that “Every spring, as they have for more than a decade, Gates spends a long weekend with Winblad at her beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where they ride dune buggies, hang-glide and walk on the beach.”

“We can play putt-putt while discussing biotechnology,” Gates said of his annual trip to see Winblad.

Attention, young men embarking on the sea of matrimony who a) do not have Gates money and b) might be considering asking for such an annual hall pass:

Just don't. Trust me.

Because my thoughts are never far from cheeseburgers, the whole thing makes me think of another super-rich guy, namely Ray Kroc, the milkshake-mixer salesman with the vision to predict America's hunger for burgers, shakes, and fries. No one has ever gone broke selling food around here, and Ray, founder of McDonald's, died in 1984 without taking a penny to Heaven with him.

It all fell to his wife, Joan, who endured his alcoholism, his philandering, his devotion to the hamburger chain and his right-wing politics, to use his money for good.  And did she ever!

She started with a pile totaling $500 million when the Big French Fry Timer ran out on Ray in 1984, and at the time of her death, she had $3 Billion to bequeath. It's said she had zero interest in running his business, but infinite interest in giving his money away in ways that would have driven him crazy if he were still around, such as:

• NPR listeners are used to hearing her name on the air, thanks to the $225 million they received from Joan. 
• She began The Kroc Foundation and made one of her first projects the establishment of Operation Cork, a personal enhancement program for the families of alcoholics, and was later a patron of the Betty Ford Clinic. 
• A native of the Upper Midwest, she went to Grand Forks, North Dakota in 1997 with a check for $15 million for flood relief.
• Following a mass shooting at a San Diego McD's in 1984, she had her chauffeur drive her to the site (she lived in SD) and set up a victim's fund and benefits for the family of the gunman as well, a troubled soul. She had the restaurant demolished within days. 
• She gave the University of Notre Dame $6 million to establish The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.  
• She gave $80 million to the local Salvation Army in San Diego for the Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center where families enjoy an Olympic sized swimming pool, ice rink, and concert hall.   
• However...after she bought a $100,000 Bosendorfer grand piano (she had one in her living room) for the Kroc Center, the Salvation Army would not allow the Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego to perform. Joan bought another Bosendorfer for the chorus to use in their hall.
• Diagnosed with brain cancer in 2003, Mrs Kroc sought to disburse as much of the burger money as she could. That's when $225 million went to NPR, $60 million to Ronald McDonald House Charities, $50 million to the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame, and…$1.5 billion to Salvation Army, to build 26 centers similar to the original one in San Diego.

As a biographer put it, "You may not like fast food, but she happened to take the proceeds of it and did something remarkable.”

And you can just imagine how Ray felt about it!