If you missed part 1 of 99 Interesting Facts About Omaha, click here.
35. Omaha Steaks International, Inc — one of America’s largest marketers of beef today — is a fifth generation, privately held, family business. In 1917, J.J. Simon and his son, B.A. — immigrants from Riga Latvia — founded the company in Omaha. It was a butcher shop called Table Supply Meat Co.
36. In the 1940s, B.A.’s son, Lester Simon, convinced the Union Pacific Railroad to serve Omaha Steaks in its dining cars. The national exposure to train passengers led the company to launch its first mail order ventures in 1952, with meat was shipped in wax-lined cartons filled with dry ice.
37. Today, Omaha Steaks is the largest direct shipper of gourmet foods in the U.S. offering more than 400 items and shipping more than four million packages a year. In 2018, the Omaha- based company employed 2000 people (not counting seasonal employees) and had annual sales exceeding $480 million.
38. Mary Lucretia Creighton left $200,000 in her will to establish a college in honor of her husband, Omaha banker Edward Creighton. On September 2, 1878, five Jesuits and two lay teachers taught 120 students at the newly established Creighton College. Edward’s brother, John A. Creighton, then fostered Creighton College’s early growth by donating $2 million between 1878 and his death in 1907. In 1958, the college split into a prep school and the present-day Creighton University.
39. Today Creighton University, a private Jesuit university, offers nine undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools with 8,393 graduate and undergraduate students on a 140-acre campus in downtown Omaha. In 2020, Creighton ranked #104 in the National Universities category of U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 list of “Best Colleges.” The Creighton Bluejays sports teams compete in the NCAA Division I Big East Conference.
40. Five Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Omaha in 2020, which are detailed below:
41. Ranked #6, Berkshire Hathaway, a multi-national conglomerate holding company, owns more than 60 diverse companies, including Geico, Duracell, Dairy Queen, BNSF, Helzberg Diamonds, See’s Candies, Pampered Chef and many more. The company’s website has a surprisingly simple, 1-page, all type homepage. (One of the all-type links does take you to the 2020 Berkshire Activewear sales page.)
42. Ranked #149, Union Pacific Corporation is the United States’ largest rail network serving 23 Western states. Union Pacific covers 32,200 route miles with 37,000 employees and 7,700 locomotives.
A fun fact: you can download a “railroad ringtone” for your phone from the Union Pacific website.
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom – The African Wild
43. Ranked #306, Mutual of Omaha is an insurance and financial firm, known for its popular “Wild Kingdom” television series with Marlin Perkins that ran from 1963-1988. You can watch 323 original shows on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom YouTube channel.
Mutual of Omaha was founded in 1909 by Dr. C.C. Criss and his wife Mabel, while he was medical student at Omaha’s Creighton University.
44. Ranked #307, Kiewit Corporation — one of the world’s largest employee-owned companies — is focused in the construction, engineering, and mining industries. The company has 23,000 employees in offices through the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
45. Ranked #486, TD Ameritrade Holdings is a Omaha-based brokerage that offers investment advisory services and an online trading platform for individual investors. In November 2019, the company agreed to be acquired by Charles Schwab for $26 billion; the acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2020.
46. Berkshire Hathaway is headed by CEO Warren Buffett, the 89-year-old “Oracle of Omaha” who is considered one of the most successful investors of all time. When Forbes released its annual world’s billionaires list in March of 2020, Mr. Buffett was considered the world’s fourth-wealthiest person with a net worth of $67.5 billion. As of early July 2020, Mr. Buffett’s net worth has increased to $70.2 billion but his ranking on the world’s billionaires list has dropped to eighth place. Check Forbes “real-time” billionaires rankings here.
47. Mr. Buffett has promised to give away more than 99 percent of his fortune. In 2009 he founded The Giving Pledge with Bill and Melinda Gates, encouraging billionaires to publicly pledge to give away at least half of their fortunes.
48. As of 2020, 210 the world’s wealthiest individuals and families from 23 countries have made the commitment to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.
49. Known for living frugally, Mr. Buffett eats McDonald’s for breakfast most mornings and still lives in the same gray stucco home in Omaha he bought in 1958 for $31,500. It is now worth an estimated $652,619.
50. During the first weekend in May each year, 40,000 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders travel to Omaha to attend what is often described as “Woodstock for Capitalists.” Investors head to Omaha to hear company chairman Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charles Munger’s talk about Berkshire’s performance, share their economic insights, and then answer attendees’ questions.
In 2020, the live Berkshire Hathaway shareholders event in Omaha was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; instead, the May 2 meeting live-streamed by Yahoo Finance.
51. According to 2019 rankings, Omaha is home to three of the 12 largest architecture/engineering firms in the United States including HDR, Inc., the DLR Group, and Leo A Daly.
52. First National Bank Omaha –a subsidiary of First National of Nebraska – is the largest privately held bank in the U.S. with $17 billion in assets and 500 employees.
The bank is headquartered at the First National Bank Tower in downtown Omaha. Completed in 2002, the 634 ft, 45-story high rise is currently the tallest building in the state of Nebraska.
53. First National Bank sponsored two sculpture parks in downtown Omaha. The Pioneer Courage Park at 14th & Capital depicts a wagon train leaving Omaha while the Spirit of Nebraska’s Wilderness Park at 16th and Dodge features more than 50 bronze and steel sculptures of Canada geese.
In between the two parks, sculptures of five bison head down Omaha’s 15th Street, traversing sidewalks, and buildings. One animal is in the side of a building.
54. In 1988 Gallup, Inc.— an American analytics and advisory company known for its Gallup Poll – was acquired by Selection Research, Inc (SRI) of Omaha. SRI took over the better-know Gallup name.
While Gallup, Inc is headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Gallup Riverfront Campus in Omaha is the research and consulting company’s largest location with 575 employees.
First, Break All The Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
In 1999, Gallup analysts wrote First, Break All the Rules, a bestselling book on management. The book, authored by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, is based on 80,000 interviews conducted by the Gallup Organization over 25 years.
55. Although she was a registered Republican at the time, Omaha etiquette expert and author Letitia “Tish” Baldrige, known as the “Doyenne of Decorum,” worked with the Kennedy family following John F. Kennedy’s Democratic primary victory in 1960.
56. After Kennedy won the Presidential election, Baldrige served in the post of White House Social Secretary from 1960 to 1963, coordinating aspects of the Inauguration, receptions, and state dinners. Baldrige had been friends with Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy since they both attended Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut as well as Vassar College.
57. Offutt Air Force Base—located just south of Omaha — is the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the 557th Weather Wing, and the 55th Wing (55 WG) of the Air Combat Command (ACC).
58. Originally named Fort Crook, the base was renamed in honor of World War I pilot and Omaha native 1st Lt. Jarvis Offutt in 1924.
59. During World War II, the Enola Gay and Bockscar, the planes that dropped atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, were built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at what is now Offutt Air Force Base.
60. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush was flown to Offutt. He was taken into an underground bunker designed to withstand a nuclear blast. While there, he conducted one of the first major strategy sessions for the U.S. response to the September 11 attacks.
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