SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Before Election Day, Harold Diamond, an 80-year-old retired elementary school principal, enjoyed a $55,000 annual pension after working for 39 years for the Monticello School District. 
 
 Now Diamond, of Wurtsboro in Sullivan County, is a millionaire a hundred times over. He won a $326 million jackpot from New York's Mega Millions. It's the largest Lottery payout in the state's history. 
 
 "I simply can't envision that kind of money," Diamond said, according to a news release from the New York Lottery. "It's very hard to fathom. We feel very blessed." 
 
 Diamond opted to take the cash value of the prize, earning him a single lump sum payment totaling $197,456,087, according to the Lottery. That means $130,676,438 in cash after required withholdings. 
 
 Diamond bought the winning ticket after voting on Nov. 4. The weather was bad. His wife, Carol, insisted they pull over at the Valero on Route 302 and eat at a Subway restaurant instead of going further into Middletown for dinner. 
 
 "I reluctantly agreed," Diamond said. 
 
 Diamond bought 10 $1 tickets, letting the system generate the numbers. One combination -- 09 15 24 39 41 and Mega Ball 01 -- ended up being worth $326 million. 
 
 But Diamond didn't realize it immediately. "I put the ticket in my wallet and forgot about it," he said, according to the New York Lottery. 
 
 The next day he went to play golf. Some others in the clubhouse were talking about a jackpot-winning ticket sold at the Valero on Route 302. The news sent Diamond home to get the ticket, watch the evening news and realized he'd made New York history. 
 
 
 
 "I was in a dither, a real daze," he told the Lottery. 
 
 
 
 Today, Diamond gave full credit to his wife, a 36-year veteran of the Goshen school district where she taught math at Goshen High School before retiring in 1994. 
 
 
 
 "I have to thank her with both barrels because if it weren't for her insistence, we would not be here today," he said. 
 
 
 
 Diamond said he has been working with a financial adviser to figure out what comes next. 
 
 Preliminary plans for the money include helping family and "giving back to the local community," according to the Lottery. 
 
 
 
 Contact Teri Weaver anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2274 
 
 

 An 80-year-old retired school principal is the sole winner of the Nov. 4 $326 million Mega Millions jackpot, the biggest prize in New York Lottery history. 
 
 Harold Diamond of the Sullivan County town of Wurtsboro says he bought the ticket at a highway service center where he had stopped at his wife Carol's insistence to wait out a storm on Election Day. 
 
 Diamond said that he bought 10 tickets for $10, then put them in his wallet. He didn't even check to see if he won until after hearing the winning ticket had been purchased at the service center the next day while playing a round of golf. 
 
 “I put the ticket in my wallet and forgot about it,” he said matter-of-factly. “I went to play golf the next day and the guys in the clubhouse were talking about the jackpot-winning ticket someone bought at a Valero on Route 302 and I thought, 'Wait a minute, I bought a ticket there last night.'” 
 
 Jackpot $326M Mega Millions Ticket Sold in New York 
 
 The jackpot-hitting ticket was sold at a Valero gas station on New York Route 302 in Middletown within the last week, lottery officials say. Sheldon Dutes reports. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014) 
 
 The New York Lottery's Yolanda Vega presented a giant ceremonial check to Diamond on Monday. He has chosen to take the cash value of the annuitized prize, which comes to about $130 million after taxes. 
 
 Diamond, who was an elementary school principal for 35 years, says he plans to use the money to help family and give back to the local community. 
 
 Diamond was the principal at Emmac C. Chase Elementary School in Wurtsburo and George L. Cooke Elementary School in Monticello. He has also been a member of the Wurtsboro Volunteer Fire Department for 50 years.
– If Harold Diamond's wife hadn't insisted they ride out a storm by getting a sandwich at a local Subway, they wouldn't be millions of dollars richer right now. The retired elementary school principal, 80, and his wife, Carol, had pulled over to eat on Election Day into a highway service station on Route 302 in Middletown, NY—"I reluctantly agreed," he tells the Post-Standard—when Diamond decided to buy 10 Mega Millions lottery tickets for $10, NBC New York reports. It wasn't until the next day after golfing that he heard the winning $326 million ticket had been sold at the Valero gas station where he had purchased his own ticket. "I saw the first five numbers, so I immediately knew we won a million," he told reporters, per the New York Daily News. "And then when I saw the last number, I yelled up to my wife, 'I think we won a few bucks!'" That "few bucks" amounts to the largest NY Lottery payout ever—about $130 million after taxes on the $197 million lump-sum payout, according to the Post-Standard. "I was in a dither, a real daze," Diamond reportedly told the NY Lottery after realizing his good fortune. He received his giant ceremonial check yesterday from the NY Lottery's Yolanda Vega at the Valero where it all started. With Carol by his side, Diamond told the crowd gathered there that "I always listen to what she says," notes the Daily News. The Diamonds, who have been married for 55 years, reportedly plan on visiting Hawaii, where they celebrated their 25th anniversary, as well as helping out family members and "giving back to the local community," as per the Post-Standard. (Here's what to do if you ever win Mega Millions.)