In a reflective message accompanying a massive transfer of Berkshire Hathaway stock to family foundations, Warren Buffett reminisced about a near-death experience in his youth that involved an emergency appendectomy, three weeks in a Catholic hospital and a curious hobby: fingerprinting the attending nuns.
The revelation came in a Thanksgiving message to shareholders in which the Berkshire chairman announced the conversion of 1,800 A shares into 2.7 million B shares for distribution to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation. The conversion and donation were executed on Nov. 10.
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The A shares, which closed at $744,500 the day the donation was made on Nov. 10, were worth around $1.34 billion. B shares closed at $496.98 on Nov. 10 for the equivalent value after the conversion.
Buffett, 95, shared that as a boy in 1938, a severe bellyache escalated into an emergency appendectomy at St. Catherine's Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. He described his three-week recovery as feeling "like I was in a nunnery," and that the nuns "embraced" his talkative nature.
The highlight of his recovery came from a gift from his Aunt Edie — a professional-looking fingerprinting set.
"I promptly fingerprinted all of my attending nuns," Buffett wrote. "My theory … was that someday a nun would go bad."
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Buffett fantasized that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who he revered, would come to Omaha to inspect his fingerprint collection and "apprehend the wayward nun."
"National fame seemed certain," Buffett wrote, adding that though his fantasy never materialized, it later became clear that he should have "fingerprinted J. Edgar himself as he became disgraced for misusing his post."
Buffett also paid tribute to the Omaha residents who contributed to the success of Berkshire Hathaway, including Charlie Munger and Stan Lipsey.
Buffett recalled the influence Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's vice chairman, had over him as a "best pal" and colleague for more than 60 years until his death in 2023.
"We had differences but never had an argument," he said. "‘I told you so' was not in his vocabulary."
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Lipsey sold the weekly Omaha Sun Newspapers to Berkshire in 1968 and then moved to Buffalo, New York to run the Buffalo Evening News, which was owned by a Berkshire affiliate. He turned the paper around, earning over 100% pre-tax annually on a $33 million investment, according to Buffett's letter.
"This was important money for Berkshire in the early 1980s," he wrote.
Buffett also used his message to shareholders to reflect on his 95 years, acknowledging his "ridiculously long straw at birth" as "healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male and in America."
His recent message marks a change in his communications, as Buffett shared he will no longer be writing Berkshire Hathaway's annual report or "talking endlessly at the annual meeting."
Buffett's successor, Greg Abel, whose succession was announced last May, will formally take over as CEO at year-end.
Buffett concluded his remarks by writing that while he still enjoys his work, Father Time is catching up.
"I have given up fingerprinting nurses," he wrote. "You can get away with many eccentricities at 95 … but there are limits."
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