 Our Founder
"James U. Blanchard III"
November 10, 1943 - March 20, 1999
 James U. Blanchard III was a man who accomplished much against great odds, and changed more people's lives than he ever knew.
A tragic automobile accident nearly killed Jim Blanchard at the age of 17, and left him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Rather than dwell on his misfortune, he underwent a philosophical transformation that shaped the rest of his life. The writings of Ayn Rand led Jim naturally to a study of laissez faire economics, and the rest of his days were spent, in some fashion or another, in the promotion of personal liberty, sound money and free markets throughout the world.
Throughout the early 1970s, for example, Jim fought for the right of Americans to own gold. In 1971, he organized the National Committee to Legalize Gold (NCLG) and launched Gold Newsletter to lobby for gold legalization. True to his spirit, some of his efforts were more dramatic and unconventional: He arranged for a biplane to tow a "Legalize Gold" banner over President Nixon's 1973 inauguration. He also held press conferences around the country at which he would brandish a then-illegal two-ounce gold bar and publicly defy the U.S. Treasury to throw him in jail.
In 1974, after it became apparent that President Gerald Ford would sign a bill authorizing private ownership of gold, Jim held his first investment conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Expecting about 250 attendees, he was shocked to see that 750 investors gathered for that first event. The next year, after gold was legalized, Jim re-christened the NCLG as the National Committee for Monetary Reform (NCMR), and continued his investment conferences for many years under that banner. Now in its 29th consecutive year, the New Orleans Investment Conference ranks as the preeminent gathering of private investors and attracts wealthy individuals from all 50 states and 35 nations.
Speakers at the New Orleans Investment Conference have included former First Lady Barbara Bush, Lady Margaret Thatcher, former President Gerald Ford, novelist Ayn Rand, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Nobel Prize-winning economists Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Barry Goldwater, Admiral Hyman Rickover, Louis Rukeyser, Sir John Templeton, Lord William Rees-Mogg, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Robert Bleiberg, Jack Kemp, William F. Buckley, Colin Powell and J. Peter Grace, among hundreds of other notables.
While Jim's successes as a businessman and investor were well known, his many efforts to promote liberty and free markets around the world were less publicized. Over the years, he distributed thousands of books on freedom and free markets behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains. Not content to just fund these efforts, he often transported the literature in himself during his many travels.
In addition, Jim co-founded the Industry Council for Tangible Assets to combat unscrupulous business practices in the coin and bullion industry, and helped reverse several burdensome U.S. laws on behalf of American investors. He served for many years on the board of The Cato Institute, one of Washington's most respected pro-free-market think tanks, and was a member of the board of governors for Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans.
Over the years, Jim's efforts on behalf of personal liberty and free markets won him numerous accolades, including Man of the Year from the World Gold Association, the Von Mises Award from the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, the Investor's Best Friend award and Junior Achievement's New Orleans Businessman of the Year award.
Jim's business interests were varied through the years. In the 1970s, he had invested $50 to begin a coin business. Fifteen years later, he sold the business, which had grown to a $115 million-a-year precious metals and rare coin firm to an investment partnership headed by the third largest corporation in America.
Jim co-founded the Blanchard Group of Funds, which held as much as $1.7 billion under management before being sold in July 1995. He was the executive editor and publisher of Gold Newsletter, which stands as the oldest precious metals-related advisory publication in the world after 30 years of continuous publication. Jim published The 1998 Gold Book Annual, written by Frank Veneroso, which broke new ground in the analysis of the world gold market. In 1999, he launched the Growth Stock Alert newsletter, edited by James B. Powell, a publication that is already enjoying rapid growth in readership.
Jim was also the co-founder and associate publisher of Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street newsletter, one of the largest and most widely read investment publications of its kind. In addition to newsletters, Jim wrote several books, including "The Cash Book" and "Silver Bonanza," both published by Simon & Schuster, and his autobiography, "Confessions of a Gold Bug." In 1993, Jim launched Jefferson Coin & Bullion, Inc., his second coin firm.
A lover of history and adventure, Jim was an avid collector of antique manuscripts, guns and Americana. He traveled around the world many times, even venturing to the North Pole, and had a special fondness for Africa and its people. Throughout his travels and in his day-to-day life, Jim's energy and enthusiasm struck everyone he met. One of his favorite quotes, by the philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, sums up his approach toward life perfectly:
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
Jim Blanchard is survived by his wife, Lesia, and three children. He accomplished much in his 55 years, but his achievements can best be measured by the countless lives he touched along the way. He left the world a much better place.
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