I want to tell you a story about Warren Buffett that I personally cherish, and that sheds light on his admirable character.

My son, Jed Lenzner, was just a tot when the notes from Omaha started coming to inquire when I was bringing him to the Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. I always wondered how a billionaire worth $43 billion recalled the name of a kid he had inscribed on a foul ball that fell near us in the Omaha minor league stadium in 1993, when I was writing the cover story of America’s then richest man for the Forbes 400 issue. But, that characteristic is what is uniquely special about this now 81-year-old Midwesterner, whose wealth rose more than 5 times since that 1993 cover.

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When Jed hit 13, I sent Warren a note saying that a six-hour meeting might be too much for him — but that Jed had received a small amount of cash for his Bar Mitzvah and had on his own opened an account at Schwab and begun investing.

The next day, a fax from Omaha arrived on my desk at Forbes, dated March 7, 2003. “Dear Bob: I’m going to have a bar mitzvah too. Tell Jed I want to hire him as a consultant. Best wishes. Sincerely, Warren E. Buffett.” (See it at right.)

So out to Omaha we went, and at the brunch on Sunday after the meeting, Warren took Jed out of the greeting line, ushered him into a corner — and began asking him for his stock picks. Jed was forthcoming, and told him Centex, a Dallas-based homebuilder, that Dan Cook. a native Nebraskan (married to Gail, the daughter of Buffett’s former doctor) and retired Goldman Sachs partner, had recommended the summer before.

Jed must have picked up some “skinny” in Omaha, as he told me he had bought 10 shares of BRK B, on Monday morning, before he went off to school.

It’s true that I have known Buffett since 1963 (though we never met until much later when I became a journalist) when I was myself in the Goldman Sachs arbitrage department and spoke to him almost every day about the takeovers being perpetrated by the conglomerates of the 1960s, especially ITT ITT in its attempt to take over American Broadcasting, which was thwarted by the Justice Department.

Then, Berkshire became the largest outside shareholder of Affiliated Publications, the company that owned my newspaper, The Boston Globe — whose owners were always anxious about Buffett helping Katherine Graham, Washington Post. where he held an even larger position, to take us over. They were even more terrified by Rupert Murdoch who owned The Boston Herald, our competitor, for a time.

So, I’ve had pretty good box seat the past 50 years as Buffett became probably the most renowned iconic figure in the investment world, rolling up annualized gains averaging 20%. What’s crucial to understand about Buffett’s role is that many ordinary middle-class Americans have learned to count on Buffett to build a nest egg for them apart from Social Security and their 401(k). He is their judicious trustee or caretaker. They know he will do nothing foolish, and that over time he is bound to increase the value of this piece of their household wealth.

They arrive in Omaha from around America and now the globe, looking to obtain some insight from Buffett and Charlie Munger in their explanations and irreverent quips during the shareholder meeting, and then spend a bit of their gains in bringing home Berkshire paraphernalia. It is a very American outing that the Master of Ceremonies relishes every second, playing bridge outside Borsheims or in the old days making the first pitch at the Omaha baseball stadium. Very down-to-earth cornball American culture. Now, the warmup session is the comedic film shown early Saturday morning — that one year showed Warren — the aspirant point guard, going one on one with Lebron James (Warren’s jersey number was 1/2). Lebron batted Warren’s shot deep into the the stands. Uproarious!