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Fare Thee Well, Louie

OMAHA, NEB. — Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) suffered the loss of scion Louie Blumkin earlier this year at 93.

The son of company founder Rose Blumkin and head of the family business for nearly 40 years, he is credited with building his mother’s fledgling furniture store into the nation’s largest home-furnishings emporium, and arranging the sale of a majority stake to billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in 1983.

Blumkin ran the company after his return from World War II, where he landed on Omaha Beach, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate Dachau. As NFM’s president, he supported zoos, parks, universities and fine arts groups, and grew annual sales to $150 million by the time he handed the reins to sons Irv, CEO, and Ron, president, sales, in 1988.

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