Helen and John Hartmann, of Cedar Grove, willed virtually their entire estate to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, school officials said.NEWARK — A Cedar Grove couple who recently died willed $5 million to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the school's largest gift to date from an individual, officials said Thursday.
The donation stunned university officials.
John Hartmann, an NJIT alumnus, and his wife, Helen, lived a modest life driving a Ford Taurus and owning a home without modern conveniences — they lacked a dishwasher and laundry machines. For three decades, they donated about $25 a year to the school.
"We were definitely appreciative of that," said Monique Pryor, assistant vice president for planned giving. "She often expressed that she just did not have the financial means to take care of her husband."
Toward the end of his life, Hartmann developed Alzheimer’s disease, said Rajul Shah, 67, who lived across from the Hartmanns. Not long after Hartmann died in November 2010, Helen Hartmann donated $600,000 to NJIT in his honor.
About five months later, Helen Hartmann died. Shah, executrix of the couple’s estate, said she fell while hanging clothes to dry outside.
The couple, who had no children, willed virtually everything to NJIT, officials said. "He wanted to give back and help other young people achieve as he did," Pryor said.
Hartmann earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1951 from the Newark College of Engineering, which later became NJIT, officials said, and received a master’s degree a decade later.