Bernard Baruch Bernard Mannes Baruch ( ; August 19 , 1870 – June 20 , 1965 ) was an American financier , stock investor , philanthropist , statesman , and political consultant . After his success in business , he devoted his time toward advising U . S . Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D . Roosevelt on economic matters and became a philanthropist . Early life and education . Bernard Baruch was born in Camden , South Carolina on August 19 , 1870 to Belle and Simon Baruch , a physician . He was the second of four sons , including brothers Herman B . Baruch , Sailing W . Baruch , and Hartwig N . Baruch . In 1881 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 . Career . Baruch became a broker and then a partner in A . A . Housman & Company . With his earnings and commissions , he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange for $ 18 , 000 ( $ 434 , 000 in today ' s dollars ) . There he amassed a fortune before the age of 30 via speculation in the sugar market . By 1903 Baruch had his own brokerage firm and gained the reputation of " The Lone Wolf of Wall Street " because of his refusal to join any financial house . By 1910 , he had become one of Wall Street ' s best - known financiers . In 1925 he endowed the United Daughters of the Confederacy ( UDC ) Mrs . Simon Baruch University Award in memory of his mother , to support scholars who have written unpublished monographs for full - length books on Confederate history . His mother had been an early member of the organization and supported their activities . Presidential adviser : First World War . In 1916 , Baruch left Wall Street to advise President Woodrow Wilson on national defense and terms of peace . He served on the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense and , in 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 France and Britain demanded of Germany , and supported Wilson ' s view that there needed to be new forms of cooperation between nations , and supporting the creation of the League of Nations . In the 1920s and 30s , Baruch expressed his concern that the United States needed to be prepared for the possibility of another world war . He wanted a more powerful version of the War Industries Board , which he saw as the only way to ensure maximum coordination between civilian business and military needs . Baruch remained a prominent government adviser during this time , and supported Franklin D . Roosevelt ' s domestic and foreign policy initiatives after his election . During President Roosevelt ' s " New Deal " program , Baruch was a member of the " Brain Trust " and helped form the National Recovery Administration ( NRA ) . He was also a major contributor to Eleanor Roosevelt ' s controversial initiative to build a resettlement community for unemployed mining families in Arthurdale , West Virginia . Presidential adviser : Second World War . When the United States entered World War II , President Roosevelt appointed Baruch a special adviser to the director of the Office of War Mobilization . He supported what was known as a " work or fight " bill . Baruch advocated the creation of a permanent superagency similar to his old Industries Board . His theory enhanced the role of civilian businessmen and industrialists in determining what was needed and who would produce it . Baruch ' s ideas were largely adopted , with James Byrnes appointed to carry them out . During World War II Baruch remained a trusted adviser and confidant of President Roosevelt , who in 1944 spent a month as a guest at Baruch ' s South Carolina estate , Hobcaw Barony . In February 1943 , Roosevelt invited Baruch to replace the widely criticized War Production Board head Donald M . Nelson . Baruch had long coveted the job , and responded that he only needed to ask his doctor if he were healthy enough for the post . During the delay , however , presidential advisor Harry Hopkins persuaded Roosevelt that firing Nelson at the army ' s demands would make him look weak , and when Roosevelt and Baruch met the at the White House , Roosevelt declined to discuss the job offer further . In 1946 President Harry S . Truman appointed Baruch as the United States representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission ( UNAEC ) . On Friday , June 14 , 1946 , Baruch presented his Baruch Plan , a modified version of the Acheson – Lilienthal plan , to the UNAEC , which proposed international control of then - new atomic energy . The Soviet Union rejected Baruch ' s proposal as unfair given the fact that the U . S . already had nuclear weapons ; it proposed that the U . S . eliminate its nuclear weapons before a system of controls and inspections was implemented . A stalemate ensued . Baruch resigned from the commission in 1947 . His influence began to diminish , as he grew further out of step with the views of the Truman administration . Park bench statesman . Baruch was well - known , and often walked or sat in Washington , D . C ' s Lafayette Park and in New York City ' s Central Park . It was not uncommon for him to discuss government affairs with other people while sitting on a park bench : he became known for this . In 1960 , on his ninetieth birthday , a commemorative park bench in Lafayette Park across from the White House was dedicated to him by the Boy Scouts . He continued to advise on international affairs until his death on June 20 , 1965 , in New York City , at the age of 94 . His funeral at Temple Shaaray Tefila , the family synagogue , was attended by 700 people . His grave is at Flushing Cemetery , Flushing , Queens , New York City . Thoroughbred racing . Bernard Baruch owned a string of Thoroughbred racehorses and raced under the name , Kershaw Stable . In 1927 his horse , Happy Argo , won the Carter Handicap . Purchase of Hobcaw Barony ( Bellefield Plantation ) , Georgetown County , South Carolina . Between 1905 and 1907 , Bernard Baruch systematically purchased a total of approximately 15 , 560 acres ( 63 square kilometers ) of the former 18th century Hobcaw Barony , also known as Bellefield Plantation , located on a peninsula called Waccamaw Neck between the Winyah Bay and the Atlantic Ocean , in Georgetown County , South Carolina . Baruch subsequently developed sections of the property as a winter hunting resort . He later transferred the property to his eldest child , Belle W . Baruch . Upon her death in 1964 , the property was transferred to The Belle W . Baruch Foundation as the Hobcaw Barony nature and research preserve . The property also includes more than forty historic buildings representing the 18th and 19th century rice cultivation industry , and early - mid 20th century winter resorts . The entire property was named to the National Register of Historic Places on November 2 , 1994 . The Trustees of The Belle W . Baruch Foundation subsequently selected the University of South Carolina and Clemson University as educational institutions with a mandate to preserve and study the Hobcaw Barony , including the estate ' s coastal ecosystems . The University of South Carolina established the Belle W . Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences , and Clemson University established the Belle W . Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science . Both universities have also formed partnerships with other schools in South Carolina that carry out research and educational programs which contribute to knowledge of coastal ecosystems . The Belle W . Baruch Foundation and the North Inlet - Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve jointly operate the Hobcaw Barony Discovery Center and provide tours and special programs .