Robert W. Welch Jr.

Robert Henry Winborne Welch Jr. (December 1, 1899 - January 6, 1985) was an anti-Communist and the founder of the John Birch Society.

Related Topics:
December 1 - 1899 - January 6 - 1985 - Communist - John Birch Society

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Welch was born in rural Chowan County, North Carolina. He was a gifted child who received his early education at home from his mother, a school teacher. He enrolled in high school at the age of ten and was admitted to the University of North Carolina at the age of twelve. Welch was a fundamentalist Baptist and, by his own admission, was "insufferable" in his attempts to convert his fellow students. Welch would later attend the United States Naval Academy and Harvard Law School but would drop out of both institutions before graduating. He would later assert this was because of his opposition to the political leanings of the instructors.

Related Topics:
Chowan County - North Carolina - University of North Carolina - United States Naval Academy - Harvard Law School

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Welch decided to manufacture candy as a way to earn a living, describing it as "the one field in which it seemed least impossible to get started without either capital or experience." He founded the Oxford Candy Company in Brooklyn, New York, which was a one man operation until he hired his brother James to assist him. James Welch would leave to start his own candy company in 1925.

Related Topics:
Candy - Brooklyn, New York

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Welch was inspired one day while making a batch of caramel to pour out a flat piece and put a stick in the candy so it could be eaten like a lollipop. He named this candy a Papa Sucker and licensed the idea to the Brach Candy Company in Chicago.

Related Topics:
Brach Candy Company - Chicago

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The Oxford Candy Company went out of business during the Great Depression but his brother's company, the James O. Welch Company, survived and Robert was hired by his brother. The company began making caramel lollipops, renamed Sugar Daddies, and Welch developed other well known candies such as Sugar Babies, Junior Mints, and Pom Poms. Welch retired a wealthy man in 1956.

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From his teenage years, Welch had been an opponent of Communism. He was a strong believer in various conspiracies in which he believed a wide range of individuals and organizations were part of an international Communist plot. In his own words, the American people consisted of four groups: "Communists, communist dupes or sympathizers, the uninformed who have yet to be awakened to the communist danger, and the ignorant."

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Welch founded the John Birch Society in December of 1958. Its original membership consisted of only eleven men. But Welch's wealth allowed the organization to have a wide impact and sponser a number of publications. At its height, the organization claimed it had tens of thousands of members. But its political views limited its ability to form alliances with other groups (even other anti-Communists like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were denounced by the Society as being too liberal) and diminished its real impact.

Related Topics:
Richard Nixon - Ronald Reagan

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In his final years, Welch began to believe that even the Communists were not the final level of his perceived conspiracy and began saying that Communism was just a front for the Illuminati.

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Welch was the editor and publisher of the monthly magazine American Opinion. He also wrote The Road to Salesmanship (1941), May God Forgivve Us (1951), and The Life of John Birch (1954).

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Welch was married and had two sons. He died on January 6, 1985. James Welch, who had publically distanced himself from his brother's political views, died less than a month later.

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