Overview
Charles Thomas Munger (born January 1, 1924) is an American billionaire investor, businessman, and former real estate attorney. He is vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett; Buffett has described Munger as his closest partner and right-hand man. Munger served as chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation from 1984 through 2011. He is also chairman of the Daily Journal Corporation, based in Los Angeles, California, and a director of Costco Wholesale Corporation. Munger was born in Omaha, Nebraska. As a teenager, he worked at Buffett & Son, a grocery store owned by Warren Buffett's grandfather.[2] His father, Alfred Case Munger, was a lawyer.[3] His grandfather was Thomas Charles Munger, a U.S. district court judge and state representative.[4]
He enrolled in the University of Michigan, where he studied mathematics.[5] During his time in college, he joined the fraternity Sigma Phi Society.[6] In early 1943, a few days after his 19th birthday, he dropped out of college to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he became a second lieutenant.[7] After receiving a high score on the Army General Classification Test, he was ordered to study meteorology at Caltech in Pasadena, California,[8] the town he was to make his home.[5]
Through the GI Bill Munger took a number of advanced courses through several universities.[7] When he applied to his father's alma mater, Harvard Law School, the dean of admissions rejected him because Munger had not completed an undergraduate degree. However, the dean relented after a call from Roscoe Pound, the former dean of Harvard Law and a Munger family friend.[9][10] Munger excelled in law school,[11] graduating magna cum laude with a J.D. in 1948. At Harvard, he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.[7][12]
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