Bernard Baruch
June 20, 1965 (aged 94)
- Financier
- stock investor
- statesman
- political consultant
Annie Griffin
3, including Belle W.
- Simon Baruch (father)
After amassing a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange, he impressed President Woodrow Wilson by managing the nation's economic mobilization in World War I as chairman of the War Industries Board. He advised Wilson during the Paris Peace Conference. He made another fortune in the postwar bull market, but foresaw the Wall Street crash and sold out well in advance.
In World War II, he became a close advisor to President Roosevelt on the role of industry in war supply, and he was credited with greatly shortening the production time for tanks and aircraft. Later he helped to develop rehabilitation programs for injured servicemen. In 1946, he was the United States representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, though his Baruch Plan for international control of atomic energy was rejected by the Soviet Union.
Early life and education[edit]
Bernard Baruch was born on August 19, 1870, in Camden, South Carolina to a Jewish family.[3][4] His parents were Belle (née Wolfe) and Simon Baruch, a physician, Confederate soldier and a member of the Ku Klux Klan.[3][5][6][7] Bernard was the second of four sons, including brothers Herman B. Baruch, Sailing Wolfe Baruch, and Hartwig Nathaniel Baruch.[8][9]
In 1879, the family moved from Camden to New York City, where Bernard and his brothers attended local schools. He studied at and graduated from the City College of New York.
Presidential adviser[edit]
World War I[edit]
In 1916, Baruch left Wall Street to advise Woodrow Wilson on national defense and terms of peace. He served on the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense and, in January 1918, became the chairman of the new War Industries Board. With his leadership, this body successfully managed the US's economic mobilization during World War I. In 1919, Wilson asked Baruch to serve as a staff member at the Paris Peace Conference. Baruch did not approve of the reparations that France and Britain demanded of Germany, and he supported Wilson's opinion that there needed to be new forms of cooperation, as well as the creation of the League of Nations.[15]
For his services in support of the war effort, Baruch was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal with the following citation:
Later life and death[edit]
Baruch was well-known and often walked or sat in Washington, D.C.'s Lafayette Park. A popular story exists which claims Baruch disliked being driven to the White House, and would sit on a bench and wait for a signal light indicating the President was ready to see him. This led to him being nicknamed "the Park Bench Statesman".[26]
In 1960, on his ninetieth birthday, a commemorative park bench in Lafayette Park across from the White House was dedicated to Baruch by the Boy Scouts.[27][28][29] A life-size bronze of Baruch sitting on a park bench is in the lobby of Baruch College's Vertical Campus.
He continued to advise on international affairs until his death on June 20, 1965, in New York City, at the age of 94.[30] His funeral at Temple Shaaray Tefila, the family synagogue, was attended by 700 people.[31] His grave is at Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, Queens, New York City.