Bernard M. Baruch was a leading American financier, statesman, and philanthropist. He was an advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Director of the United States War Industries Board during World War I, and the first United States presidential advisor with Cabinet rank.
Baruch was born in New York City on May 29, 1870
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He attended local public schools and later worked as a telegraph operator for the New York Central Railroad from 1885 to 1895. In 1895 Baruch started his long association with Morgan & Co., a Wall Street investment firm, as a clerk and rose to become its general manager in 1907. In 1909 Baruch joined forces with Edward Harkness and George F.
Baker to form the banking house of Baruch & Company, with his partners taking one-third each.
In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson appointed Baruch as head of the War Industries Board, which had been created by Congress as an agency of the executive branch of government to coordinate the nation's resources for use during World War I. The Board supervised planning and production of armaments by all industries serving the war effort; supervised military procurement; and took over control of foreign commerce and credit on behalf of the government. As head of this agency, Baruch had more direct control over the nation's economy than any other civilian official before or since.
Baruch served as director of several major banks and was also president of the United States Rubber Company (1917–1924).
He was elected president of New York University in 1919 and was named to the Advisory Council for Organization of American States in 1921 by President Warren G. Harding. During World War II he served as chairman of the War Resources Board, which coordinated economic mobilization efforts for war production; member of National Defense Advisory Commission; and member of Economic Council to the President (1941–45).
Baruch died on November 17, 1950 at age 90 in Washington, D.C., and is buried at Grove Hill Cemetery in Grove Hill, New Jersey.
He was inducted into The Order of Canada in 1954 and received an honorary doctorate from Fordham University in 1955. A high school in Union City, New Jersey is named after him. A federal housing complex in Yonkers is also named after him.