baron grew up in a jewish family in asbury park, new jersey, one of two children of morton baron, an engineer, and his wife marian. baron invested $1,000, saved from shoveling snow, waiting tables, working as a life guard, and selling ice cream, and turned it into $4,000 by investing in stocks, prompting cohorts to call him "count", a nickname which still sticks. he studied chemistry at bucknell university and attended george washington university law school at night on scholarship. his first job out of school was with the united states patent office.