NY Times Op-Ed features Ted Gup's Christmas story

Mysterious benefactor “B. Virdot,” some of the checks he sent and letters received

Ted Gup, former BJ reporter who is professor of journalism at Case Western Reserve University, has written a beautiful Op-Ed piece in the New York Times about a mysterious benefactor who sent checks to desperate residents of Canton at the height of the Depression. The piece is headlined: Hard Times, a Helping Hand

The gifts made The Canton Repository’s front page on Dec. 18, 1933. The headline read: “Man Who Felt Depression’s Sting to Help 75 Unfortunate Families: Anonymous Giver, Known Only as ‘B. Virdot,’ Posts $750 to Spread Christmas Cheer.”

The benefactor we learn as the tale unfolds was Gup’s grandfather, Samuel J. Stone..

Gup writes:

Down through the decades, the identity of the benefactor remained a mystery. Three prosperous generations later, the whole affair was consigned to a footnote in Canton’s history. But to me, the story had always served as an example of how selfless Americans reach out to one another in hard times. I can’t even remember the first time I heard about Mr. B. Virdot, but I knew the tale well.

Then, this past summer, my mother handed me a battered old black suitcase that had been gathering dust in her attic. I flipped open the twin latches and found a mass of letters, all dated December 1933. There were also 150 canceled checks signed by “B. Virdot,” and a tiny black bank book with $760 in deposits.

My mother, Virginia, had always known the secret: the donor was her father, Samuel J. Stone. The fictitious moniker was a blend of his daughters’ names — Barbara, Virginia and Dorothy. But Mother had never told me, and when she handed me the suitcase she had no idea what was in it — “some old papers,” she said. The suitcase had passed into her possession shortly after the death of my grandmother Minna in 2005.

I took the suitcase with me to our log cabin in the woods of Maine, and there, one night, began to read letter after letter. They had come from all over Canton, from out-of-work upholsterers, painters, bricklayers, day laborers, insurance salesmen and, yes, former executives — some of whom, I later learned, my grandfather had known personally.

Click on the headline to read the full story in the New York Times.Gup tells of his grandfather's own struggles that prompted his spirit of giving. There also are other photos of him and the family, the bank book and letters. . Click on the photo above to enlarge for a better view.

Footnote: Gup has been named chair of the Journalism Department and professor of journalism at Emerson College in Boston beginning in the Fall of 2009.