[Photo:  by Alex Proimos  /  Wikimedia Commons]

An investment valued at $1.7 billion fell to $101 million.

John Maxfield, writing for The Motley Fool, recently came across Meredith Spangler’s name from Bank of America’s 2009 proxy statement. It was about the time that BofA had diluted its stock to raise capital in the wake of the financial crisis.

At the time, Spangler held or exercised control over 32.1 million shares of Bank of America, nearly 7 times as much as then-CEO Ken Lewis did. She also, not coincidentally, sat on BofA’s board of directors until turning 72, the bank's age limit for directors.

Spangler's husband, Clemmie Spangler, Jr., a businessman from the bank's hometown of Charlotte, NC, had acquired the stake in 1982 when he sold the Bank of North Carolina, which he owned, to North Carolina National Bank, a predecessor company to Bank of America.

At its peak in 2006, the Spangler family's investment in Bank of America was worth $1.7 billion. Today, it's worth $710 million – presuming they haven't sold any of it.

The magnitude of the decline sounds bad, but at one time it was worse. In March of 2009, Bank of America's stock had dropped from a pre-crisis peak of $54.90 a share down to a post-crisis trough of only $3.14 a share. At its low point, the investment was worth a comparatively modest $101 million.

The rebound in Bank of America's shares has thus had a meaningful impact on Clemmie Spangler's net worth. According to Forbes, he's currently worth $3.9 billion, most of which it seems is related to his ownership of National Gypsum, a drywall manufacturer that he owns outright.

TO FORGIVE AND FORGET.    What may be most surprising about Spangler is that he isn't hostile toward Bank of America.

When asked about the fact that the bank's share price remained well below its pre-financial crisis levels, he responded that "It would take a lot more than that to get me frustrated."

Two lessons that other investors can take away from this story: (i) always think twice before abandoning investments after they've temporarily declined in value - oftentimes they'll recover; and, (ii) because investments rise and fall in value all the time, there's no reason to let yourself be frustrated by that fact.