[3][4] His parents were Belle (née Wolfe) and Simon Baruch, a physician, Confederate soldier and a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

His partners in the enterprise were Senator Nelson Aldrich, Daniel Guggenheim, John D. Rockefeller Jr., George Foster Peabody and others.

[11] 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.

[12] On September 25, 1929, after the 1929 post Labor Day peak of the Dow, Baruch refused to join a bull pool of financiers to support the declining market.

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.

By establishing a broad and comprehensive policy for the supervision and control of the raw materials, manufacturing facilities, and distribution of the products of industry, he stimulated the production of war supplies, coordinated the needs of the military service and the civilian population, and contributed alike to the completeness and speed of the mobilization and equipment of the military forces and the continuity of their supply.

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.

[16] Baruch remained a prominent government adviser during this time, and supported Franklin D. Roosevelt's domestic and foreign policy initiatives after his election.

[citation needed] Baruch was also a major contributor to Eleanor Roosevelt's controversial initiative to build a resettlement community for unemployed mining families in Arthurdale, West Virginia.

[citation needed] In 1940, responding to pleas to help Harry Truman's shoestring bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate, Baruch provided crucial funding.

[citation needed] In February 1943, Roosevelt invited Baruch to replace the widely criticized War Production Board head Donald M. Nelson.

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.

He continued to advise on international affairs until his death from a heart attack on June 20, 1965 at his home in New York City, at the age of 94.

[35] Between 1905 and 1907, Baruch purchased approximately 16,000 acres (63 square kilometers) of the former 18th century Hobcaw Barony, consolidating 14 plantations located on Waccamaw Neck, Georgetown County, South Carolina, between the Winyah Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Upon her death in 1964, the property was transferred to The Belle W. Baruch Foundation as the Hobcaw Barony educational and research preserve.

[39] 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.

[44][45] Baruch (along with Adlai Stevenson II) chose to donate his personal papers to Princeton University out of admiration for Woodrow Wilson and Dean Mathey.