Iowa Man’s $5.7M Gift To Hometown Has A Beautiful Catch

SAC CITY, IOWA — A clothier whose family kept the gentlemen of Sac City, Iowa, well-dressed for decades bequeathed $5.7 million — a fortune no one in town suspected the quiet bachelor had built — to his hometown. But there was a beautiful catch: John Criss’ magnanimous gift must be spent in full on the beautification of Sac City, a western Iowa town of about 2,135 residents who have new hope to reverse the dwindling fortunes of their fading but feisty town.

Criss broke his leg in September 2014 and died while in rehabilitation on May 28, 2015, at the age of 88. City leaders got the go-ahead to spend the Chief Clothing Co. proprietor’s large gift this spring after a lawsuit challenging Criss’ will was settled in February.

The gift comes with the stipulation that it can’t be used for street or other projects that would normally fall under the city’s capital improvements budget or to retire bonds. Criss’ desire is the same as it was in nearly 70 years he and his father had owned Chief Clothing: Dress up Sac City.

If city leaders are surprised, it’s over the size of the multimillion-dollar gift to Sac City, not that some of John Criss’ last thoughts were about his beloved hometown, the Des Moines Register reported. His father, Eugene Criss, maintained a lifelong interest in beautifying Sac City, according to a local history book, and in 2013, John Criss commissioned a gazebo to honor “the father of Sac City,” his great-great-grandfather, Judge Edward Criss, who had founded the town in 1885.

Using the money as Criss intended isn’t proving easy for a city less than 5-square miles in size. Criss didn’t put a hard deadline in his will, but the attorney who helped him write it told the Register Criss did expect that efforts to put a shine on Sac City would be immediate and ongoing until the money is spent.

“I wish I could talk to him. I wish I could ask him questions and get his ideas, but hopefully in knowing John for as long as I did, hopefully we can make him proud,” Criss’ longtime friend Renae Jackson, one of three people Criss’ will appoints as trustees to spend the $5.7 million bequest, told KITV.

One of the biggest surprises was the size of Criss’ fortune. “His closest friends, we knew John was well to do, but no one really knew he was worth that much, so (the bequest) was a surprise,” Dwaine “Dewey” Reece, another close friend who is overseeing the fund, told KITV.

Mayor Scott Bundt, also a trustee, says it’s mind-boggling to consider the potential reach of Criss’ gift.

“The more we work on projects, the more we find out how much money that is,” Bundt told the Register. “Because you can do a $100,000 project and it’s a big deal. And it’s just a fraction of the money. It’s amazing how many things I think we can do with $5.7 million.”

The trustees are considering projects that will improve tourism to a part of Iowa where tens of thousands of acres of tall cornfields and low-lying soybean fields stretch across the horizon. So far, Sac City’s biggest cultural attraction is that it’s home to the world’s largest popcorn ball, a sticky mass weighing nearly 10,000 pounds that was hefty enough for the town to reclaim its title in 2016 after being knocked out of the World Book of Guinness Records for a couple of years. Its main cache seems to be with travelers in search of oddities.

With Criss’ gift, his friends are also thinking more along the lines of the cufflinks and ties the clothier sold to complement expertly tailored suits. Willowy stems of pampas grass have been planted on the banks of the North Raccoon River, near the gazebo, and utilitarian street corner signs at 383 intersections will be replaced with fancy new markers.

The trustees are building suspense around a yet-to-be-announced major project they promise will be an apt tribute to a man who, from the grave, continues to look over his hometown.

Photo by Billwhittaker via Wikimedia Commons