The biggest gift ever made to the United Negro College Fund was $50,000. But more amazing than the donation's size is the fact that it was made by a forklift driver earning just $60,000 a year, Matel Dawson Jr. who died in November, aged 81.

He's been called "the blue-collar benefactor" for his habit of giving gifts to charity—a total of $1.3 million to causes ranging from education to libraries and churches. In 1940, Dawson dropped out of school in the eighth grade, and started working at the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Dearborn, MI. He worked prodigious overtime, skipped vacations, drove old cars, and saved his salary. He also picked a few good stocks, including Ford itself. And by 1995 he began giving it all away, including gifts of $630,000 to Wayne State University and $300,000 to Louisiana State University.