Warren Buffett's Longtime Sidekick Dies

Charlie Munger was a month away from turning 100
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 28, 2023 5:42 PM CST
Warren Buffett's Right-Hand Man Dies
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, right, and his Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, left, speak during an interview in Omaha, Nebraska, Monday, May 7, 2018.   (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

Charlie Munger, who helped Warren Buffett build Berkshire Hathaway into an investment powerhouse, has died at a California hospital. He was 99. Berkshire Hathaway said in a statement that Munger's family told the company that he died Tuesday morning at the hospital just over a month before his 100th birthday. "Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie's inspiration, wisdom, and participation," Buffett said in a statement. Munger served as Buffett's sounding board on investments and business decisions, helped lead Berkshire for more than five decades, and served as its longtime vice chairman, the AP reports.

Munger had been using a wheelchair to get around for several years but he had remained mentally sharp. That was on display while he fielded hours of questions at the annual meetings of Berkshire and the Daily Journal Corp. earlier this year, and in recent media interviews. Munger preferred to stay in the background and let Buffett be the face of Berkshire, and he often downplayed his contributions to the company's remarkable success. But Buffett always credited Munger with pushing him beyond his early value investing strategies to buy great businesses at good prices like See's Candy.

Munger grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, about five blocks away from Buffett's current home, but because Munger is seven years older the two men didn't meet as children, even though both worked at the grocery store Buffett's grandfather and uncle ran. He studied mathematics at the University of Michigan in the 1940s, but dropped out of college to serve as a meteorologist in the Army Air Corps during World War II. When the two men met in 1959 at an Omaha dinner party, Munger was practicing law in Southern California and Buffett was running an investment partnership in Omaha. Buffett and Munger hit it off at that initial meeting and then kept in touch through frequent telephone calls and lengthy letters, according to the biography Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger.

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Munger and Buffett began buying Berkshire Hathaway shares in 1962 for $7 and $8 per share, and they took control of the New England textile mill in 1965. Over time, the two men reshaped Berkshire into the conglomerate it is today by using proceeds from its businesses to buy other companies like Geico insurance and BNSF railroad, while also maintaining a high-profile stock portfolio with major investments in Apple and Coca-Cola. The shares have grown to $546,869 as of Tuesday, and many investors became wealthy by holding onto the stock. Munger built a fortune worth more than $2 billion at one point and earned a spot on the list of the richest Americans. His wealth decreased over time as he gave more of his fortune away, but the ever increasing value of Berkshire's stock kept him wealthy.

(More Charlie Munger stories.)

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