Francis C. Rooney Jr., whose leadership of H.H. Brown Shoe Co. prompted Warren Buffett to buy the Massachusetts manufacturer in 1991 for Berkshire Hathaway, has died. He was 93.
He died on March 24 at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut, his son, Michael F. Rooney, said in a telephone interview.
Rooney was in the U.S. shoe business for more than a half- century, boosting the revenue of Rye, New York-based Melville Corp. almost 40-fold as chief executive officer before a three- year retirement. In 1990, he re-emerged as CEO of Greenwich, Connecticut-based H.H. Brown, one of America’s most recognized brands for safety-toe footwear worn by builders, soldiers and cowboys.
A year later, Buffett added the company to his Omaha, Nebraska-based investment empire without visiting any of its factories, taking his cues from his impression of Rooney and the company’s balance sheet, Robert P. Miles wrote in the 2002 book “The Warren Buffett CEO.”
“Like most of our managers, he has no financial need to work but does so because he loves the game and likes to excel,” Buffett wrote of Rooney in his 1992 letter to shareholders. “Managers of this stripe cannot be ‘hired’ in the normal sense of the word. What we must do is provide a concert hall in which business artists of this class will wish to perform.”
In his 23 years as Melville’s chief, Rooney increased its share price, adjusted for splits, to $960 from $16 and earnings averaged more than 20 percent on equity, according to Buffett. The Omaha investing mogul was also encouraged by Rooney’s compensation system at H.H. Brown, whose key managers “truly stand in the shoes of owners” by earning an annual salary of $7,800 and a percentage of profits.
“He’s given me purpose,” Rooney said of Buffett, according to Miles’s book. “And I run H.H. Brown in order to make him proud.”
Buffett, whose company is currently valued at about $356 billion, said Rooney also sparked his interest in executive air travel in the mid-1990s, resulting in Berkshire’s 1998 purchase of what is today NetJets Inc., based in Columbus, Ohio, for $725 million in cash and stock.
A golf partner of Jack Welch and Bill Gates, Rooney had a contract with Buffett that stipulated a one-day work week as chairman, allowing him time to improve his game on the fairways, according to Welch’s 2001 book, “Jack: Straight From the Gut.”
“One day, I played with Frank and he shot 78, almost his age, and kicked my butt,” the former General Electric Co. CEO wrote of his neighbor in Nantucket, Massachusetts. “Afterward, I sent Warren a note about the game and complained that his employees obviously weren’t working hard enough.”
Francis Charles Rooney Jr. was born on Nov. 24, 1921, in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, to Francis Charles Rooney Sr. and the former Evelyn Fullerbrown Murray. His father was chairman of locally based Quabaug Corp., the maker of Vibram rubber soles for footwear.
He attended North Brookfield High School before earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1943. For the next two years, he was a gunnery officer on the battleship USS North Carolina in the Pacific.
Rooney began his business career as a sales trainee at John Foote Shoe Co. in Brockton, Massachusetts, in 1946 before moving to Florsheim Shoe Co. in Chicago two years later. In 1953, he joined Thom McAn Shoe Co., a unit of Melville, as a buyer and stylist, becoming president in 1961. Rooney took over as CEO of Melville in 1964, remaining there until his retirement in 1987.
Rooney cited Peter Drucker as a major influence in his business thinking and met with the U.S. management guru about once a month for decades, his son said. Drucker advised Rooney on Melville’s transformation from an integrated business into a specialty retailer.
His path to CEO at H.H. Brown stemmed from his 1950 marriage to the former Frances Elizabeth Heffernan, the daughter of Ray Heffernan, who had bought the company for $10,000 in 1927. When Heffernan died in 1990, the family decided to sell H.H. Brown and Rooney was given the task of doing so. At the suggestion of golf partner John Loomis, Rooney called Buffett to explore a sale.
“Frank has a low-key, relaxed style,” Buffett once told shareholders, according to Miles’s book. “But don’t let that fool you. When he swings, the ball disappears far over the fence.”
Rooney was chairman of H.H. Brown at the time of his death.
He and his wife of 65 years divided their time between homes in Rye, Nantucket and North Palm Beach, Florida.
In addition to his son and wife, survivors include seven other children, Peter M. Rooney, who owns a shoe business in New Jersey; Stephen G. Rooney; Jean R. Weil; William A. Rooney; Carol R. Flanagan; Frances R. Cifrino; and Clare R. Butler. He also is survived by 27 grandchildren and five great- grandchildren.