MAKES $1,000,000, QUITS.

The New York Times
29 December 1925

Former Railway Shopman Keeps Promise of 31 Years Ago.

BOSTON, Dec. 28 (AP).—A promise made thirty-one years ago when he was earning 10 cents an hour that he would retire when he made $1,000,000 will be fulfilled on New Year's Day by Joseph S. Donovan, President and Treasurer of the Donovan Motor Car Company here.

On that day, at the age of 45, he will relinquish control of one of the largest automobile distributing agencies in New England and will devote the rest of his life to play, which he says will mean Winters in Florida and Summers on the New England shore, with perhaps a trip abroad now and then.

Donovan was 14 years old and a mechanic's apprentice in the New York Central Car Shops at Depew, N. Y., when he made his promise. His companions in overalls laughed at the idea and told him that with his 10-cents-an-hour pay envelope his million should never worry him.

The promise was inspired by the sight of an aged man of wealth, leaning heavily on his cane and tottering towards his office, where he hoped to amass more millions. Donovan decided he would never become a spectacle such as that.