American financier known as “advisor to Presidents.” During World War I, President Wilson entrusted him with the task of heading various commissions to direct the war industries of the entire nation. At the end of the war, Baruch served as a member of the American Peace Commission. He served on the President’s Agricultural Conference in 1922, and continued to give valued aid to American agriculture, helping to promote legislation for farm relief. Baruch was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s advisor on national problems, and is credited with planning the National Recovery Act of 1933. In World War II, Baruch acted as advisor to the war mobilization director, and in 1944 prepared a report for President Roosevelt on war and postwar plans. In 1946, he served as U.S. representative on the UN Atomic Energy Commission, and presented the American proposal for the international control of atomic energy on June 14, 1946. As a philanthropist, Baruch’s interests led him to contribute large sums for the investigation of the causes of war and for possible means of preventing its outbreak. Baruch wrote articles and books on a variety of subjects. His autobiography, My Own Story, was published in 1957. The School of Business and Civic Administration at Manhattan’s City College was renamed Baruch College after him.