Herbert M. Baruch Biography
Herbert M. Baruch (1894-1955) was a Los Angeles native, the youngest son of Jacob and Jeannette Baruch. Jacob Baruch, originally from Bavaria, came to southern California in 1872 and, in less than a decade, became a principal in one of the oldest and largest wholesale grocery firms in Los Angeles - Haas, Baruch and Company. Herbert grew up in one of the most prominent Jewish families in Los Angeles at the time.
Following military service in World War I, Herbert founded his company in 1920. Engaged in all sorts of construction projects, the corporation became one of southern California's largest general contracting firms. By the end of his career, Baruch had built several hundred projects for private business and industry as well as for various Federal, State, and municipal agencies.
Herbert married another California native and he and his wife, Dorothy, had two children - Herbert, Jr., and Nancy - and four grandchildren. As his business grew, Herbert moved his family from the fashionable-for-the-time Westlake area to the newly fashionable Hollywood Hills above the Sunset Strip.
In addition to being a successful businessman, Baruch was a director of the Community Chest from 1948 to 1955, the local forerunner of the United Way, that had a heavily Jewish leadership before and after World War II. He also was active with the Visiting Nurse Association and the Los Angeles Psychiatric Service.
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