Business and financial leaders made frequent pilgrimages to Los Angeles to hear Charlie Munger’s thoughts as he held court while peering through thick eyeglasses over high, rosy cheekbones.

Among the attendees at his weekly “Friday lunch club” and periodic dinners were John and Patrick Collison, founders of the online payment firm Stripe; Bobby Kotick, chief executive of videogame company Activision Blizzard; Pradeep Khosla, chancellor of the University of California, San Diego; Maria Pope, chief executive of Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest utility; and Howard Marks, co-founder of investment firm Oaktree Capital Management.