Warren Buffett’s face—always smiling, whether he’s slurping a milkshake, brandishing a lasso, or palling around with fellow multibillionaire Bill Gates—has graced the cover of Fortune more than a dozen times.
And it’s no wonder: Buffett has been a towering figure in both business and investing for much of his—and Fortune’s—95 years on earth. (The magazine first hit newsstands in February 1930; Buffett was born that August.)
As Geoff Colvin writes in the current issue of Fortune, Buffett’s investing genius manifested early, and he bought his first stock at age 11. By Colvin’s calculations, over the 60 years since Buffett took control of his company, Berkshire Hathaway, its returns have outpaced the S&P 500 by more than 100 to one.
Buffett’s approach over those decades has been, as Colvin writes, “history’s greatest master class on investing.” Read his analysis of Buffett’s investing principles, and how the rest of us should—and in some cases should not—apply them.
The Oracle of Omaha has always had a special relationship with Fortune, particularly with legendary writer and editor Carol Loomis, who profiled him many times, and to whom he broke the news of his paradigm-shifting moves in philanthropy in 2006 and 2010. The end of an era is upon us: Buffett will step down from his role as Berkshire’s CEO on Dec. 31.
We at Fortune are grateful to have been along for the ride.
