The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that Charles Munger, the alter ego, sidekick and foil to Warren Buffett for almost 60 years as they transformed Berkshire Hathaway from a failing textile maker into an empire, died Tuesday at 99. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that a lawyer by training, Mr. Munger helped Mr. Buffett, now 93, craft a philosophy of investing in companies for the long term. Under their management, Berkshire averaged an annual gain of 20.1 per cent from 1965 through 2021. Decades of compounded returns made the pair billionaires and folk heroes to adoring investors. Mr. Munger was vice-chairman of Berkshire and one of its biggest shareholders, with stock valued at about $2.1-billion (U.S.). At the company's annual meetings in Omaha, Neb., where he and Mr. Buffett had both grown up, Mr. Munger was known for his roles as straight man and scolder of corporate excesses. As Mr. Buffett's fame and wealth grew, Mr. Munger's value as a reality check increased as well. "It's terrific to have a partner who will say, 'You're not thinking straight,'" Mr. Buffett said of Mr. Munger, seated next to him, at Berkshire's 2002 meeting. "It doesn't happen very often," Mr. Munger quipped.