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Buffett now had six step-grandchildren, and soon added a grandson when Howie and Devon had a child of their own, Howard Graham Buffett Jr., who would become known as Howie B. Buffett liked children well enough but was awkward and stiff around them and had no idea how to play with or engage a child. So he did as he had done with his own children—left them to Susie, who took up the role of grandmother with zest at family gatherings, and quickly added trips to visit grandchildren in Nebraska to her already extensive traveling routine.

Buffett involved himself more actively when it came to Howie’s career. At first Howie had gotten a job in real estate, but what he really wanted to be was a farmer. Since he had no capital, Buffett agreed to buy a farm, which he would rent to his son—an arrangement rather like the one he had had with his sharecropper back when he was still in high school. Howie trudged through Nebraska, looking at over a hundred farms and making offers on behalf of his father, who was determined that a farm be a cigar butt and would not pay a nickel more than necessary. Finally, somebody bit in Tekamah, and Buffett plunked down the necessary $300,000.18

Although he took Howie’s rent checks, he didn’t set foot on the farm. As with Susie’s art gallery, he had no interest in the experience, only the money. He compared the farm, as a commodity business, to men’s suit linings. “No one goes to the supermarket to buy Howie Buffett’s corn,” he said.19

That Buffett tried to control his children with money yet never spent any time teaching them about money might seem odd, but it was the same story as with his employees: He felt any smart person could figure it out. He handed the kids their Berkshire stock without stressing how important it might be to them someday, explaining compounding, or mentioning that they could borrow against the stock without selling it. By now, his shareholder letters, polished to a fine sheen by Carol Loomis, had tackled most financial subjects, and he undoubtedly thought that these, along with the example of his life, served as adequate lessons. It probably didn’t occur to him that his kids might need more personal tutoring than his partners.

Buffett did care very much about what they did with their stock, however, because he and Berkshire were as one. To sell the stock was to sell him too. Even so, he did not want his childen to live on Easy Street because of Berkshire Hathaway. Rather, he thought the future of his children and the future of Berkshire Hathaway would ultimately be joined not through ownership of the company, but by an act of philanthropy—their stewardship of the stock in the Buffett Foundation.

Buffett expressed his feelings on the subject of inheritance and philanthropy through a tribute he wrote in the Omaha World-Herald upon the death of Peter Kiewit, a near-mythical figure in Omaha. Kiewit’s company, Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc., was reportedly the most profitable construction company in the world, once called the “Colossus of Roads.”20 Buffett and Kiewit never had business dealings, but Kiewit owned the Omaha World-Herald and Buffett sat on its board.

The childless, workaholic Kiewit had lived in a penthouse apartment in Kiewit Plaza, where Berkshire was headquartered, and he commuted to work by elevator. Buffett envied him this arrangement.21 Kiewit was another Buffett prototype, a hard taskmaster and penny-pincher in the office who instilled his values through pithy little sayings. The company was his labor of love, and he was often “pleased, but never satisfied.” “A reputation is like fine china,” he said, “expensive to acquire, and easily broken.” In making ethical decisions, therefore, “If you’re not sure if something is right or wrong, consider whether you’d want it reported in the morning paper.”22 Also like Buffett, Kiewit was obsessed with managing other people’s weight.

The main differences between them were three: Kiewit was a hands-on manager. He shunned publicity. And he only seemed to be a cheapskate.