The Papers of Donald E. Baruch

Donald E. Baruch (1909-1997) was born in West End, New Jersey, on June 24. Donald E. Baruch was the son of Sailing W. Baruch and Leonora Prince, who married in 1901. He had a brother, Sailing P. Baruch. Donald was also the nephew of Bernard M. Baruch, the entrepreneur.

Mr. Baruch attended the Clark School and the King School in Stamford Connecticut, later obtaining a B.A. at Williams College.

Mr. Baruch served in the Air Force from enlisted man to Lieutenant Colonel. He underwent armament training at Lowry Field, in Denver, Colorado; OCS in Miami Beach; and the Air Staff Training section of the Hq. Western Technical Training Command; aide to a general. Completing with Hq. Air Force, Washington D.C. for Air Staff training and Public Information.

Mr. Baruch later served at the motion picture production branch of the Department of Defense. During this time he initially screened film and television scripts to determine if they were worthy of the Department of Defense's Cooperation (Boxes 22-34). During these years, Mr. Baruch held many titles, some of which included: Acting Chief of Pictorial Branch; Deputy, Audio-Visual; Motion Picture Advisor; and Chief, Audiovisual Production Branch. Some of the most noted films included From Here to Eternity; Patton; Inchon; The Execution of Private Slavik; and Tour of Duty (Sub-Group I, boxes 1-66).

Mr. Baruch served more than eight times as the U.S. Representative at the Documentary Films and Films for Children Festivals, in Venice, Italy. From 1961 to 1962 Mr. Baruch served as President of the Washington Film Council, and later as a member of the executive committee. His name has appeared numerous times in the Motion Picture Almanacs from those years. Mr. Baruch worked on a special series of film programs for the Film Council, which were presented to the National Archives for the United States Bicentennial in 1976.

Outside of the Department of Defense, Mr. Baruch worked on four Broadway plays, including I, Myself (Box 77), under the firm Pearson and Baruch. He also produced Wall Street with Arthur Lipper and Co. and operated two summer theaters in New Jersey. Mr. Baruch joined MGM Studios as an assistant to a feature films producer and became a supervisor of short subjects. He was also the assistant to the Head of the Talent Department of Paramount Pictures on New York.

Mr. Baruch was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. There was some controversy surrounding his mother’s membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, and documentation of these events can be found in these papers. Mr. Baruch was also a member of the Army and Navy, the Aviation, and the Williams Clubs, in both Washington, D.C and New York, and of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity.

Mr. Baruch lived a large part of his life as a Washington, D.C. resident, but is perhaps best known for theater work and film production during the 1930s. Mr. Baruch was married twice, first to Margaret Long, and later to Elizabeth Henley of Washington, to whom he was married for 26 years. Mr. Baruch died of cancer on February 20, 1997 at the age of 87.