Graphic by Anja Bauer
Berkshire Cotton Mills, in Adams, Mass., in the 19th Century, part of a predecessor operation of Berkshire Hathaway.
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
Most people enjoy reading about rich heirs to family fortunes fighting via nasty lawsuits over inherited money, which is usually held in complex trusts. Thus it has been with the widow of Michael Metcalf (who died in 1987) and their three children, who are suing her lawyers. Michael Metcalf ran the late-lamented big multimedia company The Providence Journal Co. Then there are a couple of Chace family cousins in Providence whose family owned Berkshire Hathaway, an old New England textile company that Warren Buffett turned into a kind of mutual fund for rich people.
Most people don’t have much money, and many live paycheck to paycheck. It makes them feel a bit better to see wealthy people angry and unhappy, though these privileged folks, often what the late Providence Mayor Vincent Cianci crudely called simply members of “the lucky sperm club,’’ almost always stay rich, and thus happier than most people.
Hit these links for details on the aforementioned fights:
https://www.golocalprov.com/business/Billionaires-Legacy-Chace-Family-Battle-Over-Control-of-Hundreds-of-Milli
