Dodge’s investment would have grown to $2.1 million by the time the Buffett Partnership was dissolved, based on figures published in investor letters. The portion paid out in Berkshire and other stock may have amounted to about $750,000 -- the equivalent of 15,897 Berkshire shares. Dodge also would have received about $1.1 million in cash after-taxes.
Homer Dodge died in 1983. He was survived by his son, Norton, and daughter, Alice Dodge Wallace. The children may have avoided the 60 percent maximum estate tax in place in 1983, according to Schroeder. In a 1989 interview with Fortune magazine, Buffett described the Dodge partnership as one “set up with Homer, his wife, children and grandchildren.”
Schroeder says that suggests a generation-skipping trust.
“Buffett did weird stuff on the side,” she said. “It’s not an unreasonable leap to make that assumption.”
At the time, Buffett recommended that partnership investors trust their money with Bill Ruane of what is now known as Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb Inc. Buffett said Ruane was “the money manager within my knowledge who ranks the highest when combining the factors integrity, ability and continued availability to all partners.”
See’s Candies
The Sequoia Fund that Ruane started in July 1970 has grown at a 14.5 percent annualized rate, according to data compiled by Morningstar Inc. Had Dodge and his children invested the $1.1 million in the fund, it would now be valued at about $390 million. The 15,897 Berkshire shares the estate may have received would be valued at more than $2.7 billion.
If the assets were split equally upon Homer Dodge’s death, Alice Dodge Wallace, 92, and Norton Dodge’s widow, Nancy Ruyle Dodge, 76, would have fortunes of more than $1.5 billion. Neither returned phone calls seeking comment.
At 6 foot 4 inches tall and 220 pounds, Horejsi shares some habits with Buffett, such as drinking Coca-Cola and eating fudge made by See’s Candies. He says he’s partial to Costco polo shirts and shorts.
“I don’t know when I last wore a tie,” he said.
He travels on planes operated by NetJets to homes in Mt. Hood, Oregon; Paradise Valley, Arizona; and Barbados, where he lives in a beachside estate called Bellerive that once belonged to movie star Claudette Colbert.