Charlie Munger

Munger married Nancy Huggins in 1945, and they had three children, including Wendy, Molly, and Teddy. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1953. Teddy died of leukemia at age nine, an experience that Munger later discussed through his ideas about resilience, self-pity, and responding constructively to adversity.

Munger married Nancy Barry Borthwick in 1956. They had four children together, and she also had two children from a previous marriage. Nancy Barry Munger died in 2010. In his 50s, Munger lost sight in his left eye after a failed cataract operation and later had the eye removed because of severe pain. He began taking braille lessons when doctors warned that the condition might threaten his remaining sight.

Munger studied mathematics at the University of Michigan before leaving college in 1943 to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He trained in meteorology at the California Institute of Technology and became a second lieutenant. Through the G.I. Bill, he later entered Harvard Law School without completing an undergraduate degree and graduated magna cum laude with a Juris Doctor degree in 1948.

After moving to California, Munger practiced real estate law and founded Munger, Tolles & Olson in 1962. He gradually shifted his attention from legal practice to investments, including real estate development with Franklin Otis Booth. He also formed an investment partnership with Jack Wheeler. The partnership generated compound annual returns of 19.8 percent between 1962 and 1975, compared with 5 percent for the Dow over the same period, before losses led Munger to close it.

Munger met Warren Buffett at a dinner in Omaha in 1959, and the two developed a lasting professional partnership. Munger became vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway in 1978 and remained in that role until his death. Buffett credited him with being the architect of modern Berkshire Hathaway, while Munger generally allowed Buffett to receive much of the public recognition.

Munger helped move Berkshire away from buying troubled companies solely because they appeared inexpensive. He favored purchasing outstanding businesses at fair prices, particularly companies with durable competitive advantages and the ability to compound capital over long periods. Berkshire's major holdings during his tenure included its insurance operations, Apple, BNSF, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

Munger's approach to business and investing centered on what he called "elementary, worldly wisdom." He advocated building a latticework of mental models drawn from fields including economics, history, psychology, mathematics, and biology. He argued that facts became more useful when they were connected through broader theories rather than memorized in isolation.

He also developed the idea of the "Lollapalooza effect," in which several psychological biases or tendencies acted together and produced an extreme result. His 1995 Harvard talk, The Psychology of Human Misjudgment, explored examples such as Tupperware parties and open outcry auctions. Munger emphasized patience, learning from mistakes, ethical conduct, and avoiding predictable forms of failure.

Munger's philanthropy focused heavily on education. He supported the University of Michigan Law School, Stanford University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, Harvard-Westlake School, and the Huntington Library and Art Museum. At Stanford, he and Nancy Munger supported the Munger Graduate Residences, a complex designed to bring graduate students from different academic disciplines into close contact.

Munger took an unusually direct role in the design of several educational buildings. He provided architectural concepts and plans for residences at Stanford and the University of Michigan, as well as a physics residence at UC Santa Barbara. UC Santa Barbara abandoned plans for Munger Hall in 2023 after criticism of its windowless-bedroom design, and Munger withdrew his support for the project.