Robert Welch Jr., Founder of Birch Society, Dies at 85

Robert H. W. Welch Jr., who founded the ultraconservative John Birch Society 27 years ago, has died at a nursing home here at the age of 85.

Welch died Sunday from the effects of a stroke he suffered in 1983.

A successful businessman who left his candy company to devote his time to the society, Welch was once quoted as calling President Dwight D. Eisenhower “a dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy.”

The group that Welch founded in 1958 was an outgrowth of his interest in history and his concern about the way he felt the United States was headed.

Welch summarized the society’s goals as “less government, more individual responsibility and a better world.”