Charlie Munger, who died last week at age 99, was lauded for his investment acumen, his stiletto-sharp wit and for the fact that he was still giving interviews filled with insight as he approached 100. But almost overlooked is the fact that the Berkshire Hathaway vice chair was an important L.A. business and civic figure.
He was a founder of what is now Munger Tolles & Olson, L.A.’s 12th largest law firm, and for a time ran the L.A. Daily Journal legal newspaper as well as Wesco Financial Corp. in Pasadena, which was sometimes called a mini-Berkshire Hathaway.
Munger was an early and crucial investor in BYD, the Chinese company that is the largest maker of electric vehicles; BYD put its North American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles and a manufacturing plant in Lancaster.
And it can also be said that Los Angeles shaped the success of Berkshire and its chief, Warren Buffett. That’s because Munger got interested in See’s Candies, then based in Los Angeles, and brokered its 1972 purchase by Berkshire, which it still owns. Until that time, Berkshire had been buying so-so companies at extraordinary prices, but after the See’s purchase, Buffett and Munger turned that around and began buying extraordinary companies for fair prices, and Buffett and Munger went on to become legendary investors.
• • •
Margaret Huntley Main, who was the 1940 Rose Queen in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, died Nov. 24 at the age of 102. Not only was she the longest living Rose Queen, but she met every queen from the first one in 1905. She watched her first Rose Parade at age 5 in 1926 and was captivated; when she was selected to be queen at age 19, it nearly brought her to tears, she said a couple of years ago in an interview.
The tournament threw a 100th birthday party for her a couple years ago and brought along her 1940 Swarovski crystal crown for one last fitting.
• • •
Speaking of the upcoming Rose Parade, an unusual float has been accepted. It is from Core Kidney, a nonprofit patient support system for kidney disease survivors and donors. The float will carry living donors and others in the kidney health community. And of course, the float will be shaped like a kidney.
The Insider is compiled by Editor-in-Chief Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
