Goodwin Commercial president Pam Goodwin, who grew up in Nebraska, met Warren Buffett at the Nebraska Furniture Mart gala event last night. The Texas legend owns Berkshire Hathaway and developed the 1.9M SF facility, the biggest home furnishing store in America. But he was at last night's Live Big Benefit for a more personal reason; the prostate cancer survivor wanted to give back to the Cancer Support Community North Texas. Warren entertained the crowd by playing his famous ukulele and then autographed and auctioned it off for $25k.
Acting as Bisnow's reporter for the night, Pam grilled Warren—he's not running for president. He was bit by the investment bug early; he told the crowd he started learning about stocks at age 7 and by 11 had read every book on investment. Pictured, Pam snapped Edge's Steve Ewing and Venture's Jonathan Cooper and Ross McCook during the gala. Jonathan was on the Venture Commercial team responsible for bringing Nebraska Furniture Mart to North Texas. His team acquired 433 acres for the store's location.
Pam is from Omaha, and worked at the original Mart during college break—she's beyond thrilled that it followed her to Texas. She tells us Nebraska Furniture Mart founder Rose Blumkin started selling furniture out of her garage and opened NFM in 1937. She was only 4'10" (and Pam has fond memories of her riding her golf cart selling carpet) but was a mighty and powerful lady, Pam tells us—she was known for her credo: “Sell cheap, tell the truth, don’t cheat nobody.” She sold the brand to Warren Buffett in 1992 (probably not for cheap) and died in 1998 at the age of 104.
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