The Snowball_ Warren Buffett and the Business of Life - Alice Schroeder [562]
17. Ibid. As Susie Jr. says, “When Howie dies, it will be no ordinary death. It will probably be by falling out of a helicopter into a polar bear’s mouth.”
18. For a four-hundred-acre farm.
19. Interviews with Howie Buffett, Peter Buffett.
20. Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. was founded by the original Peter Kiewit, a bricklayer of Dutch descent, in 1884. Dave Mack, “Colossus of Roads,” Omaha magazine, July 1977; Harold B. Meyers, “The Biggest Invisible Builder in the World,” Fortune, April 1966.
21. When Kiewit died, Buffett got the chance to take an apartment in Kiewit Plaza. He would have loved to do it, but Astrid didn’t want to leave her garden. So they stayed on Farnam Street.
22. “Peter Kiewit: ‘Time Is Common Denominator,’” Omaha World-Herald, undated, approximately November 2, 1979; Robert Dorr, “Kiewit Legacy Remains Significant,” Omaha World-Herald, November 1, 1999; Harold B. Meyers, “The Biggest Invisible Builder in the World” interview with Walter Scott Jr., Peter Kiewit’s successor, who also had an apartment at Kiewit Plaza.
23. Interview with Walter Scott Jr.
24. Peter Kiewit died on November 3, 1979. Warren Buffett, “Kiewit Legacy as Unusual as His Life,” Omaha World-Herald, January 20, 1980.
25. Buffett read Flexner’s autobiography three or four times and gave copies to his friends.
26. $38,453 for the year ended June 1980, of which $33,000 went toward colleges, the rest toward local organizations. Five years earlier, in June 1975, the foundation had assets of $400,000, with gifts of $28,498 to similar organizations.
27. Rick Guerin letter to Joe Rosenfield, October 1, 1985.
28. Warren Buffett letter to Shirley Anderson, Bill Ruane, and Katherine (Katie) Buffett, trustees of the Buffett Foundation, May 14, 1969.
29. Richard I. Kirkland Jr., “Should You Leave It All to the Children?” Fortune, September 29, 1986.
30. Larry Tisch as quoted by Roger Lowenstein, Buffett.: The Making of an American Capitalist. New York Doubleday, 1996. Tisch is deceased.
31. Kirkland, “Should You Leave It All to the Children?”
32. Warren Buffett letter to Jerry Orans, cited in Lowenstein, Buffett.
Chapter 44
1. The Dream that Mrs. B Built, May 21, 1980, Channel 7 KETV. Mrs. Blumkin’s quotes have been rearranged and slightly edited for length.
2. Ibid.
3. “The Life and Times of Rose Blumkin, an American Original,” Omaha World-Herald, December 12, 1993.
4. Ibid.
5. Minsk, near Moscow, is relatively close to the Eastern European border of Russia, which would have been a difficult passage during the war. Her route created a longer trip than traveling between San Francisco and New York by train three times, then winding back to Omaha.
6. “The Life and Times of Rose Blumkin, an American Original.”
7. This and most of the other details of Mrs. B’s journey are from a Blumkin family history.
8. The Dream that Mrs. B Built.
9. Around 1915, roughly 6,000 Russian Jews lived in Omaha and South Omaha, part of a general migration beginning in the 1880s to escape the pogroms (anti-Jewish riots) that began after the assassination of Czar Alexander II. Most started out as peddlers and small-shop owners, serving the large immigrant working class drawn by the railroads and stockyards. Until 1930, Omaha had the largest percentage of foreign-born residents of any U.S. city. Lawrence H. Larsen and Barbara J. Cottrell, The Gate City. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
10. Interview with Louis Blumkin. His father was comparing the pawnshop to the many banks that failed during this period.
11. The Dream that Mrs. B Built.
12. Ibid.
13. Louis Blumkin, who says she sold for $120 coats that cost her $100 and retailed for $200 elsewhere in town.
14. The Dream that Mrs. B Built.
15. “The Life and Times of Rose Blumkin, an American Original.”
16. Interview with Louis Blumkin.
17. Ibid. They were carving out a piece of their allotments for her.
18. “The Life and Times of Rose Blumkin, an American Original.”
19. Interview with Louis Blumkin.
20. James A. Fussell, “Nebraska Furniture Legend,” Omaha World-Herald,