Fans of Warren Buffett express sadness, gratitude to Omaha: “I cried”

Veron Wong told me that he had cried when Warren Buffett announced that he would leave Berkshire Hathaway.

Wong was one of the tens of thousands of disciples of Buffett who had descended to Omaha, Nebraska, for the annual meeting of the company.

After being in the room on Saturday for the announcement of Buffett shock which he had resigned at the end of 2025, I started to ask shareholders what they thought of losing the man in the center of all this.

I asked 20 of them the question wherever I could in this “Woodstock for the capitalists” – in the parking lot of a furniture store, during a 5 km race through the city center, in a farewell brunch and in bars.

This is how I found Wong. He appreciated the cocktails with his partner, Joanna Fadel, at the Marriott Oppos Center de santé Chi, the place of the Berkshire meeting.

Wong, 31, said he loved and admired so Buffett that the investor felt like a father for him.

“I cried,” he said. “It was sad.”

“Everyone celebrated and commemorated,” said Fadel, 30, a strategist for the design of New York innovation. “It was a beautiful moment. It was soft to be, but I think it’s a great thing to be here for this community and to be part of this inheritance.”

And what a heritage: the richest fifth in the world has taken over a failing textile company 60 years ago and transformed it into one of the most precious companies in the world.

The couple was there to celebrate their idol. Other buffett followers to whom I spoke said they felt everything, shock and grief to gratitude and hope. But many said they feared that, without Buffett, the tight community of Berkshire and the attraction of Omaha could vacillate.

‘He has a wonderful moral compass’

Later on Saturday, I stopped by a picnic of shareholders outside the Nebraska Furniture Mart belonging to Berkshire. Friends and families have nibbled the barbecue, played with lawn games and danced to live music.

Vipara Rasphone, a 30 -year -old student from Stanford MBA, Laos, told me that he was still analyzing the events of the day.

“I still treat it,” he said. He thought about what Buffett’s departure would mean for the investment world.

“Who will be our models?” He asked.

Mike Schutz, 63, worker of Omaha who was assisted in Reunion for the first time, was sitting near the scene where two singers played classic pop and rock songs.

He told me that he had applauded Buffett’s decision to withdraw, saying that it was worth “not waiting for the inevitable” and that Buffett could continue to guide Greg Abel, vice-president of Berkshire and potential successor of Buffett.

Early Sunday, I joined the shareholder masses participating in a 5 km race, organized by Brooks Running, a subsidiary of Berkshire. A Gary Oberste, 74, a semi-retired educator from Oklahoma who said he has held the Berkshire scholarship for about 10 years, told me that he was optimistic about the company’s prospects.

“I trust what he created and made it continue to grow and do better,” he added.

Sabina Coffiel, 57, researcher in local medicine and a member of a group of financial literacy for women, told me that we were crossing downtown Omaha that she was saddened by the departure of Buffett.

“I dropped,” she said. “He has been doing a great job for so long, and he has a wonderful moral compass.”

“I hope that Greg shares this compass and that Buffett still appears sometimes,” she added, referring to Abel.

Fears concerning the future attraction of Omaha

A few hours later, back to the Marriott hotel, hundreds of people mingled with coffee, breakfast sandwiches, muffins and fresh fruit while the Markel insurer was holding a meeting in the ballroom.

I started a conversation with Martin Wiegand, a 67 -year -old owner who said he had had Berkshire’s stock for 40 years and came to Reunion since the 1980s. He told me that he considered Buffett as a “wonderful model, professor and capital of capital”.

Wiegand rejected the idea that Berkshire’s stock could be assessed lower without buffett in charge. “There is no buffett bonus now; he disappeared 25 years ago,” he said.

He said he had not seen Abel show the charisma of Buffett and his late trading partner, Charlie Munger. Wiegand also worried that Omaha would be less a destination for investors in the future. Buffett was born in this city of 500,000 inhabitants, and his face was everywhere “Bazaar of good deals“Where Berkshire’s companies sold a delivery to shareholders.

Sheldon Wasserman, 77, a retired businessman from Florida who said he had held the Berkshire scholarship for over 30 years, wondered if Abel would move to Omaha. “Monks lived to become CEO of Berkshire Hathaway” was how the local newspaper of Abel reported the prospect of his accession. Monks, Iowa, is about two and a half hours from Omaha by car.

Wasserman compared Abel’s prospect who succeeded Buffett to Tim Cook by replacing Steve Jobs as Apple CEO in 2011. Cook, who took over the business of its visionary founder, has since led it to new heights.

Wasserman also riffured on one of the famous buffett sayings to highlight his point that Berkshire has more than his CEO, and that his successor would have a solid base to build.

“We are in the shade of a tree that has gone from a seed that someone planted years ago,” he said.

Wasserman told me that he did not intend to sell Berkshire shares if she falls, not only because he has confidence in her operations but also because “taxes would be astronomical”.

Sign Loenholdt, 44, financial educator of Denmark who teaches the investment of Buffett style, had a drink at the bar of differences below before catching a shuttle for the airport.

“I am concerned about the continuity of the post-buffett community,” she said, wondering if the future rallies of Omaha would retain their global attraction without a Buffett as a star.

Would she sell Berkshire’s actions if she falls to the news of Buffett’s departure? Loenholdt said she would buy more.

After all, the “sage of Omaha” has always recommended to buy a drop.