toledoblade.com --

Kevin Olmstead won $2.18 million on April 10 on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" -- the most ever won on television or radio. But do you think he bought new clothes for his New York City publicity blitz, including interviews on national television and with the press?

No.

He bought a belt. The old one was falling apart, he said.

And maybe it's just as well. As it turns out, Mr. Olmstead, 42, won't be a millionaire for long. A receipt from a recent $50 withdrawal from a cash-machine showed his balance at $2,083,852.54, but after paying taxes and donating money (both in the six figures), buying and outfitting a five-bedroom condo, and purchasing a minivan, he'll end up banking about $700,000.

"It's a lovely nest egg, but the better move is to let it grow through the next 10 to 15 years," he said. He'll retire after his mortgage is paid off and he has accrued an investment pool of $2 million.

Of course, his life has changed since he uttered "Igor Sikorsky" to game-show host Regis Philbin's query about who invented the first mass-produced helicopter.

"In reality, things have gotten busier by virtue of things stemming from the fame and making plans to spend the funds," said Mr. Olmstead, an environmental engineer. He lives and works in Ann Arbor, but grew up in Toledo and still attends church here.

The first thing he did after winning was change his telephone number.

And then he started meeting new people who were happy to see him: private bankers, investment counselors, real-estate agents, and car dealers. He's selling his modest Ann Arbor home and buying a $280,000 condo that will be spacious enough for his large book collection, an office for the quiz-tournament business he loves, and a couple of spare bedrooms where his buddies can crash when they come to town for tournaments. His mother and sister have free rein to decorate the 3,000-square-foot space.

And, one day soon, he'll settle into a comfy chair with never-expected-in-his-lifetime reading material: sacks full of letters from women interested in getting to know him. That's thanks to an article in a tabloid, which tantalized readers by promising to forward all mail to the bachelor.

Sure he'll look at the missives, he said, in the company of friends. "The letters will receive all the consideration they deserve," he said. "We'll have several giggling parties before they are summarily burned by my sister. How desperate are these women?"

He's already received a handful of letters from charities hoping to tap into his largesse, an invitation to join MENSA, and notes from an astrologer, a matchmaker, and two moms with sob stories.

The top graduate of Whitmer High School's class of 1977, Mr. Olmstead says he was a very shy child.

"I was a dumpy little kid. Possibly a nerdy little kid," he said. He was brainy and overweight and kids picked on him, so he kept to himself, reading mysteries, science fiction, and science books.

When he was in primary school, his father, who worked in public relations, died. At the time, Kevin's mother, Margaret, was pregnant with his sister. When Kevin was an adolescent, his mother, a math teacher at DeVilbiss and later at Rogers high schools, married Ralph Emery, a self-employed technical expert. They live in Sylvania Township.

Kevin enjoyed high school. "Although I probably overdid it. I actually carried a briefcase to school. It was probably practical at the time."

Following his big win, a reporter engaged him in a discussion of, "Am I a Geek?"

"It depends on how you define nerd or geek," he said. "I have an interest in learning, interest in knowledge, an active mind about these things. And I like to be with people who are into that kind of verbal repartee, and into trivia. If this is considered nerdy, oh well! I try to get out a bit. And I could do with improving the wardrobe, which is on the list of things to do."

An intangible bonus of his brush with fame has been a boost in self-esteem. "I'm more confident with calling people. More self-assured. Any engineer in the consulting world has to market a bit," he said.

And he'll build on that by joining a Toastmaster's Club and perhaps enrolling in a Dale Carnegie course. "I should get practicing if I'm going to do the rubber-chicken circuit."

He plans to continue working for his civil and environmental engineering firm. And, he has undertaken a project with the National Society of Professional Engineers that aims to enhance the image of the profession. "We're doing a Who Wants to be an Engineer? on their Web site, with questions such as, what types of engineer would help build a brewery or design a golf course?" he said.

After the show aired, Jay Leno poked fun at environmental engineers on his TV late show. Mr. Olmstead didn't take that lying down. He fired off a letter, telling Leno that engineers have evolved from their 1960s image as nerdy guys peering through black-rimmed glasses and sporting plastic pen protectors in their shirt pockets. A few days later, Leno called him at work to chat.

His real love is his avocation - quiz tournaments. As a teen, he was on Whitmer's quiz team and played with intramural groups at Case Western Reserve University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan, where he earned a doctoral degree. And, in 1994, he won $27,000 on three episodes of Jeopardy!

The quiz-tournament circuit has taken off with the Internet, he said. And after observing that quiz questions are often badly written, he and his friends formed their own company, National Academic Quiz Tournaments, writing questions for and moderating tournaments at high school and college matches.

"There's a lot of dreck out there that we attempt to remedy," he said.

He's the financial guy for the business, and his new condo will become its headquarters. "We all have day jobs," he said. He specializes in questions about science and classical music. Their biggest client is Microsoft Corp.; they have provided thousands of questions for its on-line trivia game.

Last weekend, Mr. Olmstead assisted a charity quiz tournament in Ann Arbor by reviewing the questions they planned to use. "I kept about half," he said.

He plans to start a scholarship foundation for high school students who are on winning quiz teams. He may fund a graduate assistant position at the University of Michigan. He will buy new clothes.

And he'd like to spend some time in Europe. "Beyond that I haven't taken the time to sit down and dream," he said.

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