The inventor of the flashlight, Conrad Hubert, had died in 1928 and had asked in his will that three-quarters of his fortune be given away by a committee made up of a Catholic, a Protestant, and a Jew. Governor Al Smith was selected as the Catholic; Julius Rosenwald, the founder of Sears, who also sat on a Mount Rushmore board, as the Jew; and Coolidge as the Protestant.
