Charlie Munger

Charles Thomas Munger was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 1, 1924. Buffett later wrote that Munger grew up a block from the Omaha house Buffett would later own.⁠[1][2]

University of Michigan president Santa J. Ono said Munger had been an undergraduate mathematics student there; he left without a degree to enlist in the Army Air Corps in 1943 and studied meteorology at Caltech.⁠[3][1][4]

He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1948 and went on to practise real estate law in Southern California.⁠[1][4]

Munger met Buffett at a dinner in Omaha in 1959, when he had returned for his father’s funeral. Buffett wrote that Munger was then 35 and he was 28.⁠[4][5]

NBCNBCNBC (National Broadcasting Company) is an American national commercial broadcast television network. It was founded by RCA in 1926, began as a radio network and later developed television. With ABC and CBS it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it passed to General Electric with RCA in 1986, merged with Universal to form NBCUniversal in 2004, has been controlled by Comcast since 2011, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry News records that in 1962 he helped found the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson and founded the investment partnership Wheeler, Munger & Co., which closed in 1975.⁠[1]

Buffett wrote in his 2014 letter that See’s Candies was bought in 1972 through Blue Chip Stamps, in which he, Munger and Berkshire all held major stakes.⁠[6]

Munger led the Los Angeles publishing and software company Daily Journal Corp. from 1977 through 2022.⁠[4]

He formally became vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway in 1978 and held the post until his death.⁠[1][4]

Buffett’s 1983 letter said the Blue Chip–Berkshire merger went off without a hitch and that late that year Munger replaced Louie Vincenti as chairman of Wesco Financial, in which Berkshire’s stake rose to 80%. He remained Wesco’s chairman and chief executive until Berkshire bought the remaining shares in 2011.⁠[7][1]

Poor Charlie’s Almanack, edited by Peter D. Kaufman and collecting eleven of Munger’s talks, was first published in 2005 and later reissued by Stripe Press.⁠[8]

Michigan Law’s memorial records that Munger gave $3 million in 2007 for lighting in the Law Quadrangle, received an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Michigan in 2010, gave $20 million in 2011 to renovate the Lawyers Club and pledged $110 million in 2013 for the Munger Graduate Residences, then the largest single gift in the university’s history.⁠[9][3]

In 2007 he gave Pasadena’s Polytechnic School stock then worth more than $10 million; about a decade before his death he gave The Huntington Library nearly $33 million in Berkshire stock for an education and visitors center, and in October 2023 he gave the library $40 million.⁠[10]

In Berkshire’s 50th-anniversary letter Buffett said Munger’s blueprint was simple: forget buying fair businesses at wonderful prices and instead buy wonderful businesses at fair prices.⁠[6]

Ritholtz.com, which reposted the video, says “A Conversation with Charlie Munger and Michigan Ross – 2017” was recorded in Los Angeles on November 30, 2017 for the school’s alumni. University of Maryland professor David Kass later summarised the roughly 55-minute interview, including Munger’s sharp criticism of bitcoin.⁠[11][12]

Greg Abel recalled in his 2025 shareholder letter that at the May 1, 2021 annual meeting Munger said Greg would keep the culture, a remark taken as confirming Buffett’s succession plan.⁠[13]

Berkshire Hathaway announced that Munger died in a California hospital on November 28, 2023, at 99. Buffett said in the release that Berkshire could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation.⁠[14]

The same day CNBCCNBCCNBC is an American business and financial news cable channel launched by NBC in 1989; it merged with its rival FNN in 1991 and since January 2026 has been part of Versant Media Group, spun off from Comcast.Open the full entry aired excerpts of an interview Becky Quick had recorded with him weeks earlier, his last televised interview.⁠[15]

Buffett opened his 2023 letter with a tribute noting that Munger died 33 days before his 100th birthday and calling him the “architect” of the present Berkshire, with Buffett as the “general contractor.”⁠[5]

Buffett had lately been watching Munger’s old speeches on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry, including a talk at the University of Michigan dated in one account to 2018. Buffett’s friend Sharon OsbergSharon OsbergSharon Osberg is an American bridge player and former banking technology executive who was an executive vice president running Wells Fargo's online financial services division, won two world bridge titles with U.S. teams, and is Warren Buffett's longtime bridge partner.Open the full entry said that watching him watch Charlie, “You feel the bond between the two of them.” Munger used to end his days with “Seinfeld” and a good book.⁠[16]

Berkshire Hathaway: Official website: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]