David Rockefeller (1915-2017)
A narrative composed by
D. A. Sharpe
David Rockefeller was
born on June 12, 1915 in New York City, the youngest of the six children of
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He died in his sleep at
the age of 101 at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York.
David Rockefeller is one of the grandsons of the most famous
Rockefeller, John Davidson Rockefeller, Sr. David is the 4th great grandnephew
of Johann Philip Rockefeller, who is the husband of Catherine Sharp
Rockefeller, my 3rd great grandaunt. Catherina is the sister to Lt.
George P. Sharp, my third great grandfather, who was the qualifying ancestor
for me to become a member of the sons of the American Revolution.
One of David's brothers gained public notoriety as well. Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller served as the elected
Governor of New York State. When Vice President Gerald Ford ascended to
the U.S. Presidential post, vacated by the resignation of Richard M. Nixon,
Ford nominated to the U.S. Senate the name of Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller to
fill his unexpired term as Vice President of the United States, which was a
successful nomination.
David Rockefeller attended Lincoln School of Columbia, University's
Teachers College in New York for 12 years and graduated from Harvard University
in 1936 with a bachelor of science degree. After post-graduate study at Harvard
and the London School of Economics, he received a Ph.D. degree in economics
from the University of Chicago in 1940. His doctoral thesis, "Unused
Resources and Economic Waste," was published by the University of Chicago
Press in1940.
On September 7, 1940, David Rockefeller married the former
Margaret "Peggy" McGrath. They were married for nearly 56 years when
she died in 1996. Together they raised two sons and four daughters.
From 1940 to 1941, David Rockefeller served as secretary to
New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia. He then
served as assistant regional director of the United States Office of Defense,
Health and WelfareService (1941-1942), before
enlisting as a private in the U.S. Army in May 1942.
He entered Officer Candidate School in 1943, and was
discharged as a captain in 1945. During World War II, he served in North Africa
and France, where, for seven months, he was an assistant military attache in Paris. He was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit,
the U.S. Army Commendation Ribbon and the French Legion of Honor.
Business Career: After the war David Rockefeller
began a career in banking. He joined the Chase National Bank as an assistant
manager in the foreign department in 1946. He was appointed an assistant
cashier in 1947, second vice president in 1948, and vice president in 1949.
From 1950 to 1952, he was responsible for the supervision of Chase's business
in Latin America, where, under his direction, new branches were opened in Cuba,
Panama and Puerto Rico, plus a representative office in Buenos Aires. In 1952,
he was named a senior vice president with responsibility for supervising the
economic research department and customer relations in the metropolitan New
York area, including all the New York City branches.
When Chase National and the Bank of the Manhattan Company
merged on March 31, 1955, David Rockefeller was appointed an executive vice
president in charge of the bank development department. On January 1,1957, he
became vice chairman of the Board of Directors with responsibility for the
administrative and planning functions of the bank as a whole.
He became president of the bank and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the
Board of Directors on January 1, 1961. On March 1, 1969 David Rockefeller
became Chairman of the Board ofDirectors and chief
executive officer of The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. in New York, and of The
Chase Manhattan Corporation upon its formation on June 4, 1969. He retired in
1981. During his career with Chase Manhattan, Rockefeller gained a worldwide
reputation as a leading banker and spokesman for the business community. He
spearheaded the bank's expansion. both internationally and through
out the metropolitan New York area, and helped the bank play a
significant role as a corporate citizen.
Philanthropy and Public Service: In addition to
his work with Chase Manhattan, David Rockefeller has been a leader in many
public and private projects, reflecting his wide-ranging interests in
international, governmental, civic and cultural affairs and his belief in
collaboration between government and the private sector.
In 1940, David Rockefeller became a member of the Board of
Trustees of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, which had been
established in 1901 by his grandfather, John D. Rockefeller. A decade later, he
succeeded his father as chairman of the Institute's Board of Trustees, serving
in that capacity for 25 years (1950-1975). Working with Detlev
Bronk, Rockefeller led the transformation of the
research institute into a biomedical graduate university, which was renamed The
Rockefeller University in 1965.
Along with his brothers - John D. 3rd, Nelson A, Laurance, and Winthrop, David Rockefeller established the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) in1940. It became "the most significant
joint philanthropic endeavor" of the "brothers'
generation" of the Rockefeller family, he later recalled, becoming
"the principal vehicle for our support of groups infields
such as population, conservation, economic development, urban affairs, and
basic scientific research" (Memoirs, p. 142). He also helped found the
Rockefeller Family Fund in 1967, and joined with his brothers
in a number of other philanthropic, economic development and investment
enterprises.
Among the other family philanthropic enterprises
he served was the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which his mother had helped
create. Following her death in 1948, David Rockefeller was invited to take her
seat on the board of directors. He served a brief stint as interim Chairman of
the Board in 1958, and longer periods in that capacity in 1962-1972 and
1987-1993. He also was a life trustee of the University of Chicago (which his
grandfather helped establish) and an honorary trustee of International House
(New York), established by his father.
In 1958 Rockefeller helped establish the Downtown-Lower
Manhattan Association (D-LMA), serving as its chairman, 1958-1975. Its planning
proposals aided the redevelopment of lower Manhattan, and led to the creation
of the World Trade Center. He also played a major role in the development of
the Morningside Heights neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan as
president (1947-1957) and then chairman (1957-1965) of Morningside Heights,
Inc. As chairman of the New York City Partnership (1979-1988), he was a leader
in organizing the city's business sector to work with government on such major
public issues as economic growth, summer jobs for students, improving the
city's schools, and housing development.
He also was instrumental in the formation of the
International Executive Service Corps (chairman, 1964-1968), a group of
businessmen who volunteer to provide technical and managerial assistance to
private enterprise in developing countries. He also helped form The Business
Committee for the Arts in 1967.
In the realm of international affairs, David Rockefeller has
established and worked with a variety of organizations that further his belief
in "constructive engagement" and the promotion of dialogue among
businessmen and government officials across national borders. In 1949, he
became a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, an educational institution
where leaders from the field of scholarship and the public and private sectors
meet periodically to expand their perspectives on foreign affairs; he served as
the council's chairman from 1970 to 1985. He also attended the annual
Bilderberg meetings, established by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, from
their inception in 1954. In 1973, he helped found the Trilateral Commission, an
organization designed to promote understanding and co-operation among the
nations of North America, Western Europe and Japan.
In the early and mid 1960s Rockefeller helped organize both
the Council of the Americas and the Center for Inter-American Relations, which
worked to maximize private enterprise contributions and cultural and
intellectual exchanges in the development of Latin America. These were
reorganized as the Americas Society in 1982. He also helped to establish the
David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University,
which opened in 1994.
He also has been an officer in the Advisory Council on Japan-United
States Economic Relations and the National Council for U.S.-China Trade, and a
member of the Bulgarian-U.S. Economic Council; the U.S.- Egyptian Joint
Business Chamber; the U.S.- Iran Joint Business Council; and a director of
U.S.- U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council, Inc.
The Rockefeller Center: In the 1980s and 1990s, David
Rockefeller played an active role in the financing and ownership of the
Manhattan landmark his father had built, Rockefeller Center. In March 1982 he became chairman of Rockefeller Center, Inc.,
which was renamed the Rockefeller Group, Inc. (RGI) the following year. He
oversaw efforts to beautify, diversify and unify Rockefeller Center, which
included capital improvements to modernize the facility. In January 1985 RGI
bought the twelve acres of land underneath the buildings from Columbia
University for $400 million, "the highest per-acre price ever paid for a
parcel of urban real estate" (Memoirs, p. 469). A new company, Rockefeller
Center Properties, Inc., was formed to offer stock in Rockefeller Center in a
public sale; the public offering raised $1.3billion, which RCPI lent to RGI in
exchange for a mortgage on the land and buildings of Rockefeller Center. In
September 1989, David Rockefeller and his associates sold 80% of RGI to the
Mitsubishi Estate Corporation of Japan for $1.373 billion. Even though the
Rockefeller family retained ownership of 20% of Rockefeller Center, the sale of
a controlling interest in such a prominent landmark was controversial. But the
sale came at the end of a real estate boom in Manhattan and on the eve of a
worldwide real estate recession; in the changed marketplace, Rockefeller Center
went bankrupt in May 1995.
Disappointed by the bankruptcy of the landmark bearing the
family name, David Rockefeller assembled a group of investors that bought
Rockefeller Center in March 1996. Rockefeller insisted that his partners agree
to hold onto the property for five years before considering a sale. During that
time, as the real estate recession ended, the Center's management refurbished
the facility and made it more attractive. In December 2000, David Rockefeller
and his partners agreed to sell Rockefeller Center to another group of
investors, led by Jerry Speyer, for $1.85 billion, thus ending the Rockefeller family's
ownership of Rockefeller Center.
Source: Originally written by Rockefeller Family and
Associates,1975; revised by the staff of the Rockefeller Archive Center,
January2004.
http://archive.rockefeller.edu/bio/david.php
Additional David Rockefeller information is found on
Wikipedia at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rockefeller
The Rockefeller home in
the Hudson Valley at Pocantico Hills, NY is where
David died peaceably in his sleep on March 20, 2017, at age 101. This is the Rockefeller estate
originally established by John Davidson Rockefeller, Sr., the founder of
Standard Oil Company, and the grandfather of David Rockefeller.
David was the longest lived of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.Ős
grandchildren, and one of the most, if not the most, influential and effective
of the Rockefeller grandchildren, affecting business, culture, the arts and
international cooperation among peoples of the world.
Here
is a chart of my relationship to David Rockefeller
One last good feeling is that a recent event made occasion
for us to change banks. We now do
checking with the Chase Bank, that has been under our family memberŐs
leadership.
Dwight Albert (D. A.) Sharpe
805 Derting Road East
Aurora, TX 76078-3712
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