Bernard Baruch

• 1. A Boy From Camden

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  Bernard Mannes Baruch entered the world on the 19th of August 1870 in Camden, South Carolina. He was born into a Jewish family where his father Simon worked as a physician and Confederate surgeon. His mother Belle Wolfe raised him alongside three brothers including Herman B. Baruch and Sailing Wolfe Baruch. The family moved to New York City when Bernard turned ten years old. At age fourteen he began attending classes at the City College of New York in northern Manhattan. He later graduated from that college before entering the financial markets.

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• 2. The Lone Wolf Trader

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  Baruch purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange for nineteen thousand dollars using earnings from his brokerage work. He amassed a fortune before turning thirty by speculating on the sugar market which boomed in Hawaii. By 1903 he owned his own firm yet refused to join any other financial house. This independence earned him the nickname "the Lone Wolf of Wall Street". After 1924 he made millions during the bull market but grew skeptical about its longevity. Chastened by losses in the Florida real estate bubble collapse he began selling stocks in favor of bonds cash and gold. On the 25th of September 1929 after the peak of the Dow he refused to support declining markets. Humorist Will Rogers later told Baruch that he had saved his life by advising him to exit early.

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• 3. Mobilizing A Nation

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  In January 1918 Baruch became chairman of the War Industries Board to manage U.S. economic mobilization during World War I. The President of the United States awarded him the Army Distinguished Service Medal on the 9th of July 1918 for exceptionally meritorious services. His leadership established broad policies for supervising raw materials manufacturing facilities and product distribution. These actions stimulated war supply production while coordinating military needs with civilian populations. In 1919 Wilson asked Baruch to serve as a staff member at the Paris Peace Conference. He supported the creation of the League of Nations despite disagreeing with reparations demanded by France and Britain.

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• 4. Advisor To Presidents

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  Baruch served as a special adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding industry roles in war supply when the United States entered World War II. His offices were located at 120 Broadway where he advocated for a permanent super-agency similar to his old Industries Board. Policies adopted under his influence cut two years off the time taken to produce tanks and bombers. During 1944 Roosevelt spent a month as a guest at Baruch's South Carolina estate known as Hobcaw Barony near Georgetown. In February 1943 Roosevelt invited Baruch to replace Donald M. Nelson but declined further discussion after Harry Hopkins intervened. Baruch also commissioned physicians to develop recommendations for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation providing over one million dollars to medical schools.

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• 5. The Atomic Proposal

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  On Friday the 14th of June 1946 Baruch presented his plan to international control of atomic energy to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. The Soviet Union rejected the proposal as unfair given that the U.S. already possessed nuclear weapons. They countered by demanding the U.S. eliminate its arsenal before any system of controls could be implemented. A stalemate ensued between the nations. Baruch resigned from the commission in 1947 as his opinions grew out-of-step with the Truman administration. His influence began to diminish following this rejection of his diplomatic efforts regarding global security.

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• 6. Hunting Grounds And Foundations

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  Between 1905 and 1907 Baruch purchased about thirty thousand acres of the 18th-century Hobcaw Barony consolidating fourteen plantations on Waccamaw Neck. He developed sections of the property as a winter hunting resort located between Winyah Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Upon her death in 1964 the property transferred to The Belle W. Baruch Foundation as an educational preserve. The estate includes thirty-seven historic buildings from the rice cultivation industry and early-to-mid-20th-century resorts. The University of South Carolina established the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences there. Clemson University also created a similar institute to study coastal ecosystems alongside other partnerships.

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• 7. The Park Bench Statesman

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  Baruch was well-known for walking or sitting in Washington D.C.'s Lafayette Park near the White House. A popular story claims he disliked being driven to meetings and would wait on a bench for a signal light indicating presidential readiness. In 1960 on his ninetieth birthday a commemorative park bench was dedicated to him by the Boy Scouts. He died from a heart attack on the 20th of June 1965 at his home in New York City at age ninety-four. His funeral at Temple Shaaray Tefila attracted seven hundred people before burial in Flushing Cemetery. Baruch College of the City University of New York bears his name along with public housing projects called Baruch Houses.

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