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Thanks to Mott's foundation, every one of Flint's 47 public schools stays open after regular hours and becomes a community center. In the afternoons, 375 neighborhood baseball teams take over the school grounds. In the evening, 80,000 grownups pour into the schools to busy themselves in 1,200 adult-education courses.
Says G.M. Employee, James Jamrog, father of eight: "Mr. Mott isn't somebody far away. He's like, well, almost a member of the family. He's not like the mean old rich man you read about in stories. At our house, we just take it for granted we are all going to take Mott Foundation classes. If it weren't for the Mott Foundation, this sure would be a different kind of town."
Today the foundation also administers such projects as a health and safety program, a children's health center, an athletic and recreational program, a teen-club program and a "Big Brothers" organization. The overhead cost, says Charlie Mott proudly, runs to .74%, compared with the 8% or 9% of other foundations.
Hoi Polloi. Married four times, Mott is the father of six children (youngest: 21).* He drives a sporty, gold-colored Corvair, wears store-bought clothing. Once he astonished a guest by crossing the length of his vast living room to turn off a lamp. "Can't stand to see anything wasted," he murmured.
More than anything else, Mott's philanthropy is aimed at one aspect of Flint life. "Educators these days are concentrating on geniuses," he says. "We don't neglect them, but we're more interested in hoi polloi." His new $128 million gift to the foundation has not been earmarked for any specific purposes. Explains Mott: "My push is largely in the direction of people who have less opportunity, so we're promoting education for people who haven't had the opportunity to learn."
A few years ago, somebody asked Mott how much he was worth. "Doesn't matter," he said. "What matters is what a man does with his worth." The people of Flint know what that means.
* Mott's first wife committed suicide in 1924. His second wife died in 1928, six months after they were married. He divorced Wife No. 3, Dee Van Balkom Furey, after nine months of marriage in 1929, gave her more than $1,000,000 of G.M. stock. Mott married his present wife, Ruth Rawlings Mott, in 1934.