Dwight C. Baum, 89; PaineWebber Executive in L.A., Philanthropist

Dwight C. “Bill” Baum, 89, a financier and philanthropist whose career in Los Angeles spanned more than five decades, died June 19 of pneumonia at a convalescent home in Pasadena. He was a longtime resident of San Marino.

Baum was born in Syracuse, N.Y., the son of Dwight J. Baum, a prominent New York architect whose projects included more than 100 homes along the Hudson River in the Bronx’s Riverdale section.

Bill Baum moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and began his career in corporate finance with Eastman Dillon & Co. He worked mostly with that company for the next several decades of mergers and changes of name, including to Blyth Eastman Dillon & Co., and a subsequent transaction that folded that company into PaineWebber.

Baum was vice president and regional manager for PaineWebber in L.A. until 1984, when he opened an office in Pasadena. A past president of the Los Angeles Society of Security Analysts, he worked until shortly before his death.

His philanthropy benefited the National Federation of the Blind, enabling that group to establish a program in Los Angeles that gives the blind telephone access to the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. He also gave $2.5 million to USC in 2000 to help build a new engineering and multimedia building. He had a degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, his alma mater, which he also supported.