Warren Buffett's Hero You've Never Heard Of

In an article and interview by Randall Lane from Forbes, Warren Buffett reveals how he was influenced on his philosophy on philanthropy. If you're aware, Buffett gave away $40B of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, rather than managing the distribution of his wealth himself. Some would associate this type of thinking to his investment style, where he avoids micro-managing companies that he invests in. The real reason is that he was inspired by a man named Abraham Flexner, who had counseled many, if not most, of the major philanthropists of his time including Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.

Flexner was responsible for Andrew Carnegie's revolution on medical education. He had attacked medical schools for teaching through lectures rather than providing hands on training. As a result of his criticisms, inefficiencies were reduced, and about half of the medical schools were subsequently closed. Buffett was inspired by Carnegie's trust in Flexner, which had obviously made a impression on him. Buffett says, "Carnegie did not go out and visit all these medical schools himself. He got Flexner to do it." Likewise, Buffett has Gates to do it.

In Buffett's biography by Alice Schroeder, she writes [pg. 487] :

Among philanthropists, Buffett also admired Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller as original thinkers. Carnegie had built public libraries in poor neighborhoods all across the United States. The Carnegie Foundation had sent Abraham Flexner as an emissary to study medical education in the United States. When his 1910 paper caused a national scandal by revealing the shocking condition of medical schools, Flexner convinced the Rockefeller Foundation to donate enough money to revolutionize medical education. Rockefeller also wanted to tackle problems that lacked a natural funding constituency. He found that poor black colleges, lacking rich alumni, had no way to improve themselves. “In effect, John D. Rockefeller became their alumnus,” Buffett says. “He tackled problems without concern of which among them was most popular, and he backed them up big-time.”

I find Buffett's philanthropic endeavors just as interesting as his investment record. I'm no philanthropist by any stretch of the imagination, but I've become rather interested in finding a copy of Flexner's autobiography (or maybe Wikipedia will do). I've also been following the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation for awhile (at least on Facebook), and I encourage anyone else to do so. They do wonderful work on problems that literally kills millions of lives annually including the Rota Virus, Polio, Malaria, Aids and other major diseases. Flexner would've been proud.

Thoughts? Are you familiar with Abraham Flexner? Is philanthropy interesting to you? If you were Buffett, would you handle giving away your money any differently? Please no inappropriate comments about politics, taxes, socialism etc.