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still would not dream of flying any class but coach. Sandy Gottesman still questioned everything skeptically and wanted an override on every deal. Tom Knapp had finished buying up huge chunks of the Maine coastline and started in on Hawaii. Jack Byrne was as pumped full of energy as ever. Roy Tolles still kept his thoughts to himself, except for shooting off a one-liner every now and then. Ed Anderson and Joan Parsons pumped money into human-sexuality research, but Ed still picked up pennies in the street, unless they were really dirty. Marshall Weinberg was still an irresistible flirt. Lou Simpson was still such a good stock picker that he had become one of the Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville. Carol Loomis had made enough money from Berkshire stock to fly in a private jet but still couldn’t buy a jar of pickles without reflecting on the luxury of pickles during her Depression-era childhood.39 Retired from building gigantic dams and bridges, Walter Scott now built gigantic houses instead. After going to the theater, Joyce Cowin still walked up Broadway and across the park to the Upper East Side in a snowstorm rather than take a cab. Ajit Jain, now a Buffett Group member, spent most of his time in his room during the meetings, doing deals at a furious pace to please Buffett. Ron Olson, who had once been liked by most people that Buffett knew—except Judge Brieant—was now liked by most of the people in greater Los Angeles. Then there were Bill Scott, Mike Goldberg, and Chuck Rickershauser, all in various states of retirement from working for years close to the nice, warm sun, also all in various stages of recuperation from the effects of Rickershauser’s Law of Thermodynamics.40 Bill Gates, unlike the rest in so many ways, shared the group’s intellectual interests and complete lack of pretense. As for Kay Graham, she remained their one real connection to echelons of society that titillated them even while failing to seduce them. “Oh, Princess Diana,” she would say. “Such a good friend. Much more there than is obvious.”

Amid the K Club’s luxury, Buffett handed out copies of a booklet, The Gospel of Wealth by turn-of-the-century industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. As he celebrated his sixty-fifth birthday, and took stock of his life to date, he had been rereading Carnegie. Now he led the group in a debate of Carnegie’s premise that “He who dies rich dies disgraced.” Carnegie had honored that philosophy, spending nearly his whole fortune, one of the greatest in history at the time, to establish libraries in towns and cities all over the United States.41 Buffett had always planned to die rich and disgraced, as Carnegie would put it, so that there would be more to give away after he was gone. He insisted that the best use of his talents was to keep making more money until he died, and he had no interest in being personally involved in the foundation’s work. That would be Susie’s project. But he wanted to hear what other people thought and obviously was giving some consideration to this question.

They went around the table. Bill Ruane, who had never cared much about money and was poor compared with the rest, was about to undertake a project to transform the worst of New York’s public schools. He would later go on to work with Columbia University to screen thousands of New York City schoolchildren for mood disorders and suicide risk.42 Fred and Alice Stanback were among the most important donors to environmental causes in the United States. Tom Murphy was chairman of Save the Children. Jane Olson, Ron’s wife, chaired the international board of Human Rights Watch. Before Dan’s death, the Cowins had donated an important collection of art to the American Folk Art Museum. Charlie Munger gave to Good Samaritan Hospital and education. Walter and Suzanne Scott had donated huge amounts of money in Omaha. Ruth Gottesman served on the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Board of Overseers. Marshall Weinberg was gradually giving away nearly all of his money for scholarships, world health, Middle East issues, and educational