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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
BIOGRAPHY
JUNE 1991
JUNE 1991
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Laurance Spelman Rockefeller was born on May 26, 1910,
in New York city, the fourth of the six children of John D.
Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.
He is the brother of David Rockefeller, chairman of
The Rockefeller Group and former chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank.
Their late brothers were: John D. Rockefeller 3rd; Nelson A.
Rockefeller, former Vice President of the United States and
Governor of New York; and Governor Winthrop Rockefeller of
Arkansas. A sister, Abby Rockefeller Mauze, died in 1976.
Laurance Rockefeller attended Lincoln School, a
progressive co-educational preparatory school connected with
Teachers College of Columbia University in New York city, before
entering Princeton in 1928. He majored in philosophy and was
graduated in 1932 from Princeton with a B.A. degree, and went on
to two years of graduate study at Harvard Law School. Mr.
Rockefeller retained close ties with Princeton, serving 13 years
on the board of trustees and then becoming a trustee emeritus.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Princeton awarded him the Woodrow Wilson Award, its
highest award, on February 16, 1991.
The medal is presented
annually to an undergraduate alumnus "whose activities exemplify
Woodrow Wilson's ideal of Princeton in the nation's service."
In May 1990, Congress enacted legislation which
authorized the awarding of a Congressional Gold Medal to
Mr. Rockefeller in recognition of his life-long work and dedication
to conservation and environment.
President Bush approved the
legislation on May 17. The medal has been bestowed on only 96
other individuals since the first one was awarded to George
Washington.
Mr. Rockefeller served in the Navy 1942-1945 and attained
the rank of lieutenant commander.
Mr. Rockefeller and Miss Mary French, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. John French, were married on August 15, 1934, in the
Congregational Church in Woodstock, Vermont. They have three
daughters and a son -- Mrs. Richard M. Chasin (Laura), Marion R.
Weber, Dr. Lucy R. Waletzky and Laurance -- nine grandchildren,
three step-grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
In 1935, Mr. Rockefeller began working in the family
office located in Rockefeller Center, then about midway in
construction. His first duties were to learn, to build up his
knowledge of Rockefeller philanthropic activities, conservation
projects and business interests. Simultaneously, he developed his
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
own interests, blending business acumen with the talents of a
"gadgeteer," a label he once pinned on himself.
Mr. Rockefeller's interests spanned the broad field of
environmental quality, including conservation and outdoor
recreation; philanthropy; cancer research, education and treatment;
and science-based industry. In his public and private work in
these activities, he displayed a willingness, a zest for venturing
into new ground.
Mr. Rockefeller's introduction to public service came in
1939 when Governor Herbert H. Lehman of New York appointed him to
the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC). He was president
of the PIPC from 1970 to 1977 and continued as a commissioner until
his resignation in December 1978.
He served under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson
and Nixon in conservation-outdoor recreation advisory capacities.
He worked on federal commissions set up to help develop national
conservation-environmental policies and programs. For example, in
1958, President Eisenhower appointed him chairman of the Outdoor
Recreation Resources Review Commission (ORRRC) which charted ways
of meeting the nation's outdoor recreation needs through the year
2000.
Because of the greatly expanded nation-wide interest in
the outdoors, Mr. Rockefeller was instrumental in establishing a
similar commission to re-evaluate the country's outdoor
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
recreational needs and which reported to President Reagan in 1987.
He was a special emissary for President Johnson in the effort that
led to creation of the National Redwoods Park in California.
Mr. Rockefeller served as chairman of President Nixon's
Citizens' Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality, successor
to a similar group which he headed under President Johnson. He
has been associated with the New York Zoological Society since 1935
and became honorary chairman in 1975. He also serves as a trustee
or officer of several other conservation and outdoor recreation
organizations.
Mr. Rockefeller was president of Jackson Hole Preserve,
Inc., a nonprofit conservation and education foundation, from its
founding in 1940 until 1987 when he became chairman. The founda-
tion's initial focus on the preservation and protection of the
Jackson Hole Valley, now part of the Grand Teton National Park,
in Wyoming was broadened to include other scenic, historic and
environmentally-sensitive areas.
He was a founding trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers
Fund and, for 22 years, served as its president and, later,
chairman. He stepped down in 1980 and was vice chairman for two
years. From 1982 to 1985, Mr. Rockefeller was an advisory trustee
of the Fund.
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Page 5
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Mr. Rockefeller has continued an active association with
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City since 1947.
He served as chairman from 1960 to 1982 when he was elected to the
new position of honorary chairman.
He is a director of the
Community Blood Council of Greater New York and a life member
emeritus of the Corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
From 1960 to 1982, he was a trustee of the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation.
Mr. Rockefeller is well known as an investor of risk
capital in young enterprises whose future is based primarily on
scientific and technological developments. Over the years,
investment interests have included, among other areas, the fields
of aviation, aerospace, electronics, high temperature physics,
composite materials, optics, lasers, data processing, thermi-
mionics, instrumentation and nuclear power. Since August 1969, his
venture capital investments in these areas have been made through
a venture capital group formed by members of the Rockefeller
family.
In a different area of venture capital, he has developed
outstanding resort hotels noted for the beauty of their surround-
ings in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii and Vermont. He
formed a resort management company, Rockresorts, Inc., which
managed these resorts. Rockresorts and all but the Vermont resort
later were sold.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Mr. Rockefeller has been a leader in cancer research, in
cancer education and teaching and in the improved care of the
cancer patient. His participation in the cancer field began in
1947 when he was elected to the Board of Managers of Memorial
Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, in New York, of which he
became president in 1950.
He played an important part coordinating the work of the
hospital and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research,
whose board he had joined in 1949. This effort led, in 1960, to
the creation of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as the
parent body to guide, coordinate and support the two institutions'
programs. He became the Center's chairman in 1960, and served in
that position until 1982, when he retired and was elected honorary
chairman. He continued an active, personal interest in all of the
Center's activities.
Under the leadership of Mr. Rockefeller, the late Alfred
P. Sloan and Eugene Kettering, the Center initiated a $155 million
construction program which, when completed in 1976, provided the
world's most modern facilities for cancer research, treatment and
personnel training. The program included a 565-bed hospital, which
was completed in November 1973.
His activity at Memorial Sloan-Kettering continues a
family interest in medicine that began with his grandfather,
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
John D. Rockefeller, whose early concern about medical problems
led to the establishment of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical
Research (now The Rockefeller University) and The Rockefeller
Foundation.
Mr. Rockefeller, Jr. -- Laurance's father -- continued
this interest and became a key benefactor of Memorial Hospital in
the 1920's. He donated the entire city block at 68th Street and
York Avenue on which Memorial now stands.
In 1985, Laurance S. Rockefeller contributed $36.2
million to Memorial for the Rockefeller Research Laboratories
dedicated to his father. The board room within the laboratories
building is named for Laurance S. Rockefeller.
Mr. Rockefeller has advocated "cross pollenization" and
close cooperation among the professional staffs and programs being
carried out at three institutions clustered across the street from
each other on New York City's East Side -- Rockefeller University,
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and New York Hospital-
Cornell Medical Center.
Mr. Rockefeller received the Clement Cleveland Award in
1958 for "outstanding contributions to cancer educational work" and
in 1969 was the first recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Award of the
American Cancer Society, New York City Division, "in recognition
of his many outstanding and meritorious contributions to furthering
the cause of cancer control."
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Foundation in 1948, and he was instrumental in organizing the
National Recreation and Park Association, formed in 1965 through
a merger of five organizations. He was the NRPA's first president.
Jackson Hole Preserve, Incorporated
In 1957, the American Scenic and Historic Preservation
Society awarded its first Horace Marden Albright Scenic Preserva-
tion Medal to Mr. Rockefeller. The previous year, the Virgin
Islands National Park was created as the result of an initial gift
of more than 5,000 acres, made possible by funds from him and other
Rockefeller sources. He felt especially honored by the Albright
award because of his respect for Mr. Albright, a friend as well as
advisor since the mid-twenties. Mr. Albright died in 1986.
In 1926, Mr. Albright, when superintendent of Yellowstone
National Park, was host to Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller, Jr., and three
of their sons, Laurance, Winthrop and David, on what proved to be
a significant visit to Wyoming. Mr. Albright had shepherded them
through Jackson Hole, the 30-mile long mountain valley which has
as its western backdrop the snowy peaks of the Grand Tetons, with
elevations up to 13,766 feet. The valley floor itself is at an
elevation of about 6,400 feet.
The splendor of the Grand Teton country captivated the
Rockefellers. Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., resolved to safeguard Jackson
Hole and its view of the Grand Tetons for the enjoyment of all
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
persons. Subsequently, he purchased 33,562 acres in the valley
from ranchers and other owners to give to the federal government.
However, the plans encountered delays until 1949, when Laurance S.
Rockefeller, as president of Jackson Hole Preserve, presented deeds
to the land to Secretary of the Interior Oscar L. Chapman. The
valley land later was included in Grand Teton National Park.
Laurance Rockefeller was president of this nonprofit
conservation and education organization from its formation in 1940
until 1987 when he became chairman. Over the years, members of the
Rockefeller family have been substantial contributors to JHPI's
conservation and outdoor recreation projects. The purposes of JHPI
are to preserve areas of outstanding primitive grandeur and natural
beauty and to provide appropriate facilities for their use and
enjoyment by the public. JHPI has protected large sections of the
Grand Teton country and has been active in a number of other
conservation activities, including helping to save California
redwoods and, under Laurance Rockefeller's leadership, assisted in
establishing in 1970 the 2,500-acre Hudson Highlands State Park,
just north of New York City. In the mid-1980s, JHPI joined other
groups in focusing efforts on the scenic, historical, cultural and
economic advantages of New York State's Hudson River Valley to
better establish the area as a leading attraction for visitors.
Through pilot projects carried out by subsidiaries of
Jackson Hole Preserve, Incorporated, Mr. Rockefeller sought answers
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
to one of the most controversial aspects of park operations --
providing suitable visitor facilities.
Much useful experimenting was done at Colter Bay, on
Jackson Lake, by the Grand Teton Lodge Company, a subsidiary of
Jackson Hole Preserve, in cooperation with the National Park
Service. To Mr. Rockefeller, the campsite at Colter Bay is
convincing proof that properly designed and carefully located
facilities can be provided in a beautiful, natural setting with a
minimum of harm to its fundamental values.
Also in Jackson Hole, Mr. Rockefeller, with the
cooperation of the New York Zoological Society, set up a wildlife
preserve where elk, moose, deer, buffalo, beaver and other animals
could be observed the year round. This preserve, Wildlife Park,
was turned over in 1953 to the National Park Service. Some 15
years later, a budget cut closed the preserve.
Virgin Islands National Park
A stopoff at the Island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin
Islands during a cruise of the Caribbean in 1952 led to Mr.
Rockefeller's interest in bringing to life an old National Park
Service report. This almost-forgotten report had pointed out that
the island's unspoiled natural beauty and primitive charm combined
the rare qualities required for establishment of a national park.
He took the lead, with Jackson Hole Preserve, Incorporated, to
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
safeguard those qualities for the enjoyment of the people in the
tradition of both his father and the National Park Service.
Rockefeller funds, mostly from Laurance, were used to
acquire 5,000 acres on St. John. This land was turned over to
the government on December 1, 1956, at the dedication of the Virgin
Islands National Park. It represented more than half of the
park's initially authorized area of 9,500 acres. Further
Rockefeller gifts were made to the park's program, including
acquisition of "inholdings" -- privately owned lands within park
boundaries -- as they became available.
In 1962, Congress approved legislation extending the
park's boundaries to include 5,650 acres of offshore submerged
lands -- areas containing beautiful coral formations and rich forms
of tropical marine life, much of which can be observed by
snorkelers following an underwater "trail."
Mr. Rockefeller also purchased and donated to Jackson
Hole Preserve, Incorporated, a small resort on St. John known as
Caneel Bay Plantation. Developed to accommodate park visitors,
Caneel Bay is regarded as one of the world's most beautiful
resorts. As with Grand Teton Lodge Company, the resort's income
after operating and maintenance costs was earmarked for
conservation purposes.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Resorts
Resort areas in the Caribbean, Hawaii and Vermont have
attracted Mr. Rockefeller's development capital for tourist
enterprises separate from the operations undertaken by subsidiaries
of Jackson Hole Preserve. His criteria for these investments:
prospects for profitable returns over the long run, social and
economic development of the areas in which they are located, and
settings of natural beauty which will provide recreation and self-
renewal for the urban-oriented guests.
In 1958, he built the Dorado Beach Hotel and Golf Club,
located twenty miles outside San Juan in Puerto Rico, in coopera-
tion with the island's Operation Bootstrap with the aim of creating
jobs and increasing tourism. Following this came the development
of Little Dix Bay, a vacation resort in the British Virgin Islands.
Also in the Virgin Islands, in association with his brother, David,
he developed Fountain Valley Golf Course and Davis Bay Beach in St.
Croix. The golf course and beach were sold in 1984. In Hawaii,
he built the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Island of Hawaii, which
ranks as one of the finest resort hotels in the world. Mr.
Rockefeller sold the Dorado Beach resort to Eastern Air Lines in
1967, and UAL, Inc., acquired Mauna Kea in 1978.
In 1986, Mr. Rockefeller sold Rockresorts, Inc., his
hotel management company, and Little Dix Bay resort.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
The charm of Woodstock, Vermont, a New England village
that is the ancestral home of Mrs. Rockefeller, and the area's
peaceful, rolling countryside, appealed greatly to Mr. Rockefeller.
In 1969, he built the new Woodstock Inn and its guest facilities,
which he later expanded. Since the early 1960's, he operated the
nearby Mt. Tom and Suicide Six ski areas. Mr. Rockefeller's
interest in maintaining the historic character of Woodstock has led
him over the years, to acquire other properties in the area.
He was instrumental in developing the Billings Farm & Museum in
Woodstock, which, in addition to being a working farm, depicts
Vermont farm life around 1900.
Princeton University
Mr. Rockefeller maintained an active interest in
Princeton University, from which he graduated with a B.A. degree
in philosophy in 1932. He was a member of the Department of
Philosophy's Advisory Council from 1941 to 1980. He became a
trustee of the university in 1967, serving until 1980 when he
became a trustee emeritus. While a trustee, Mr. Rockefeller held
membership on a number of committees, including the executive
committee as well as the committees on curriculum, student life,
finance, grounds and buildings, honorary degrees and plans and
resources.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
He has been a major contributor to the university over
the years. In 1990, Princeton announced that Mr. Rockefeller had
pledged $21 million to create at the university a Center for Human
Values, which will convene a range of specialists to study broad
ethical questions.
In 1986, Mr. Rockefeller pledged $10 million to Princeton
for its new molecular biology building and asked that it be named
after Dr. Lewis S. Thomas, president emeritus of Memorial Sloan-
Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
Mr. Rockefeller also contributed $5 million in 1980 in
memory of his brother, John D. Rockefeller 3rd, who graduated from
Princeton in 1929. Laurance Rockefeller's contribution, plus those
from the family of John D. Rockefeller 3rd, was designed to develop
from existing university facilities a new residential college --
Rockefeller College, in memory of Mr. Rockefeller 3rd. The
Laurance S. Rockefeller Library is located within Rockefeller
College.
In 1970, he contributed $4 million for new dormitor-
ies -- Spelman Halls -- following the admission of women to
Princeton. Spelman Halls are named in honor of his paternal
grandmother, Laura Celestia Spelman.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Zoos and Nature Centers
A trustee of the New York Zoological Society since 1955,
Mr. Rockefeller worked closely with the late Fairfield Osborn in
expanding the society from a local organization exhibiting animals
in New York Zoological Park -- the Bronx Zoo -- to one conducting
conservation and research activities on an international scale.
He was elected the society's president in 1968, and chairman in
1970. He resigned as chairman in 1975 and was elected to the new
position of honorary chairman.
Mr. Rockefeller had a major role in one of the Zoological
Society's largest undertakings in the 1950's -- construction of the
modern New York Aquarium at Coney Island. New York City cooperated
in building the $4,500,000 aquarium.
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
In 1939, Governor Herbert H. Lehman appointed Mr. Rocke-
feller a member of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC),
a New York-New Jersey body responsible for operation of the string
of parks on the west bank of the Hudson River, across and upriver
from New York City. The Rockefellers and others had been enlisted
early in the century in the movement to preserve the Palisades'
rocky cliffs and adjoining areas from destruction by quarrying.
The present Palisades Interstate Park system, which includes the
Palisades Interstate Parkway, encompasses more than 90,000 acres
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
in an area stretching from the George Washington Bridge linking
Manhattan and New Jersey north to Storm King Mountain and northwest
to Sullivan County.
The years since World War II comprise an era of great
growth and improvement of the park system, and Laurance Rockefeller
took an active part in planning and directing the enlarged program,
including construction of the 43-mile scenic Parkway. He was
elected commission secretary in 1941 and vice president in 1960,
when he also was designated Palisades representative to the New
York State Council of Parks (now the New York State Council of
Parks and Outdoor Recreation) He was elected commission president
in September 1970, a position he held until 1977. He resigned from
the commission in 1978. His son, Laurance, is now president of
PIPC.
As a Palisades commissioner. Mr. Rockefeller was particu-
larly alert to possibilities for new acquisitions of land whose
natural features or strategic location added significantly to the
public's enjoyment. He contributed to the purchase of two sections
of the Tallman Mountain region in the early 1940s. Some ten years
later, his contributions brought the 590-acre Dunderberg Mountain
plus the Hudson shoreline at Jones Point within the park system.
Later, after viewing rundown conditions in the Rockland Lake area,
he sparked the drive to acquire and improve valuable lakefront
property and helped with the purchase. Rockland Lake North opened
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
to the public in 1965 and Rockland Lake South, five years later.
Iona Island, a Hudson River island that was once a naval arsenal,
was acquired in 1965 for development as a recreational area, a
successful finish to an acquisition campaign begun by Mr. Rocke-
feller in 1947.
Park Land Acquisition and Development
A major interest of Mr. Rockefeller in the late 1950's
and early 1960's was the $100 million land acquisition bond
programs which his brother, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller,
proposed and New York State's voters enthusiastically endorsed.
The bond program was directed at the state's future needs for park
and recreation space and set a precedent which other states fol-
lowed. Allied with the Governor and Laurance in the effort to win
legislative and voter approval of the initial $75 million bond
issue in 1960 for financing the program were Harold G. Wilm, then
Conservation Commissioner, and Robert Moses, then chairman of the
State Council of Parks. In 1962, they led another campaign adding
$25 million to the program.
With these funds the state acquired more than 35,000
acres of park land, assisted cities, counties, towns and villages
in acquiring 31,000 acres and secured 283,000 acres of multiple use
and forest recreation areas.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
In 1965, Mr. Rockefeller, as chairman of the State
Council of Parks, announced the Next Step Program: a $400 million
program for park development over a ten-year period, 1966-76. The
key element was a $200 million Recreation Development Bond Issue,
approved by the voters in November 1966. The other $200 million
was to come from federal, state and municipal sources.
New York State Council of Parks and Outdoor Recreation
Mr. Rockefeller formerly was chairman of the New York
State Council of Parks and Outdoor Recreation and its predecessor
agency, the State Council of Parks. He had been elected to succeed
Robert Moses in January 1963. He had joined the council as the
Palisades Interstate Park Commission representative and had been
elected its vice chairman in 1960.
He was instrumental in developing the 1967 plan which
created two new State Park regions -- one for New York City and one
for the five counties comprising the Capital District.
Under Mr. Rockefeller's chairmanship, the council played
important roles in carrying out the land acquisition program
financed by the 1960 and 1962 bond issues and in developing the
Next Step Program; the establishment of the New York State Historic
Trust; cooperation in the creation of the Fire Island National
Seashore; a modernization program for existing facilities; a
program of busing children from disadvantaged areas to state parks;
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
and in the establishment of the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation in 1970.
Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission
President Eisenhower selected Mr. Rockefeller in 1958 to
head the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, a fact-
finding and advisory group created by Congress. Eight of ORRRC's
fifteen members came from Congress and seven were Presidential
appointees. Their assignment was to determine the outdoor
recreation needs of the American people to the year 2000 and to
recommend policies and programs necessary to meet those needs.
ORRRC carried out the most comprehensive fact-finding job
ever made in this field, the results of which were published in 27
volumes. The major findings and more than 50 recommendations were
contained in ORRRC's own report, Outdoor Recreation for America,
submitted to President Kennedy and Congress in 1962. This report
added up to a five-point program designed to improve and increase
recreation use of both public and private land and water resources,
to make more effective use of existing recreation areas and to
acquire new ones, particularly shoreline. This program spelled out
proposals for a national recreation policy; a classification system
for outdoor recreation resources; expansion, modification and
intensification of existing programs; a Federal Bureau of Outdoor
Recreation and a program of grants-in-aid to the states.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
The ORRRC Report envisioned a "long-range sustained
effort -- both public and private" to achieve the goals fixed for
the nation in the outdoors.
The acceptance of the ORRRC recommendations was extra-
ordinary. In the months following their presentation, a number of
the recommendations were put into effect by legislative action or
administrative ruling. A new Bureau of Outdoor Recreation and a
cabinet-level Federal Recreation Council was established, with the
Bureau carrying forward many of the specific program
recommendations.
Most significant, perhaps, was that the ORRRC Report
engendered a new enthusiasm and awareness for conservation and
programs.
Mr. Rockefeller was a member of the Public Land Law
Review Commission, a federal body patterned along the lines of
ORRRC. Set up by Congress in 1964, the commission engaged in a
thorough study of the nation's public land laws and presented its
recommendations in 1970.
Because of the extraordinary surge in Americans' interest
in outdoor recreation since the 1962 report, in 1982 Mr. Rocke-
feller was instrumental in setting up the Outdoor Recreation Policy
Review Group. This independent non-governmental group recommended
that a national commission be established to consider the country's
outdoor recreation needs in light of new conditions. Following
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
The conference turned over to the President a series of
proposals to beautify the American city, the countryside and the
highway system. Other proposals dealt with ways to achieve these
ends by action of government at all levels and by citizen action.
On receiving the conference's preliminary report in the East Room
of the White House, the President said of Chairman Rockefeller,
"All America is in debt to that selfless patriot."
As a forerunner to the conference, Mr. Rockefeller had
served in 1964 as a member of the President's Task Force on Natural
Beauty.
Presidential Citizens' Advisory Committee
When President Johnson set up the Citizens' Advisory
Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty in 1966, he chose
Laurance S. Rockefeller to be its chairman. The 12-member
committee received a broad mandate from the President as he said
its task was "to tell us where to go from here" in the fields of
outdoor recreation and natural beauty.
In annual reports in 1967 and 1968 to the President's
Council on Recreation and Natural Beauty, a Cabinet-level group,
the Citizens' Committee emphasized recommendations aimed at safe-
guarding environmental values and increasing the supply of the park
and recreation lands.
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LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Mr. Rockefeller also was chairman of the Citizens'
Committee's Electric Utility Industry Task Force on Environment.
Its report in 1968 gave emphasis particularly to the undergrounding
of distribution lines and the citing of atomic plants.
In 1969, President Nixon created the 15-member Citizens'
Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality, replacing the
Committee on Outdoor Recreation and Natural Beauty. Mr. Rocke-
feller was chairman of the new committee for four years and,
later, continued to serve as a member for three more years.
Venture Capital
The main line of Mr. Rockefeller's investment activities
has involved new or young enterprises operating on the "frontiers
of technology." This course reflects his absorption with the new,
scientific, the imaginative. He has put risk capital to work in
backing development engineers and small businessmen. He moved
first into aeronautics and went from air transport and aircraft
manufacturing into space-age industry. "I like doing constructive
things with my money, rather than just trying to make more," he
once remarked. Actually, he has done both with most of his
investments.
He developed an investment approach to accompany his risk
capital and the careful research by himself and his associates:
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Page 26
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
the "three-legged stool" basis of ownership of the new companies.
One leg consisted of Mr. Rockefeller and others allied with him;
a second was the operating management, and the third, other private
investors or the "public." The arrangement, he has said, provided
a healthy balance, prevented domination by any one group and "tends
to prevent any one of the three parties from wandering off on a
tangent." It also was in line with a strong belief that the
incentive to management provided by ownership of a significant
share of a new company was crucial to its success.
A number of Rockefeller family members, including
Laurance, joined in 1969 in forming a venture capital partnership
which has developed into Venrock, Inc.
Mr. Rockefeller's investments in young science-based
companies have kept pace with scientific developments and changing
technology over the years.
His first venture capital investments in the field of
aviation were made in the late 1930's. In 1938, he participated
in the refinancing of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker's fledgling
Eastern Air Lines, on which he served for many years as a director
and, later, advisory director.
In 1939, he backed J.S. McDonnell, Jr., an airplane
designer with a small experimental shop in St. Louis who had an
idea for an advanced type of fighter plane. Mr. Rockefeller
invested $10,000 in McDonnell Aircraft Corporation to help finance
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Page 27
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
the development of the aircraft, and although that particular model
never got into production, the company went on to become a major
producer of military aircraft. When Mr. Rockefeller entered the
Navy as an aircraft procurement officer during World War II, he
sold his McDonnell holdings. He reinvested on a larger scale after
the war. With the company successfully established and growing,
Mr. Rockefeller began to dispose of his holdings in 1949.
Immediately following World War II and into the early
1950's, venture capital investments were primarily made in the
fields of aviation, space and electronics. These included Piasecki
Helicopter Corporation (1946), which eventually became part of the
Boeing Company; and Reaction Motors, Inc. (1947), a leader in the
field of liquid propellant engines for rockets, missiles and manned
aircraft. Among Reaction's achievements was the development of the
rocket engine for the famous Bell X-1, the first aircraft to exceed
the speed of sound. Reaction was acquired by Thiokol Chemical
Corporation in 1958. Other investments during this period also
included: the Marquardt Aircraft Corporation, developer of the
ramjet engine; and Airborne Instruments Laboratories, Inc.,
aerospace electronic systems.
From the mid-fifties to the early sixties, investment
participations were in the emerging technological areas of infor-
mation handling, nuclear technology, optics and high temperature
physics. Investments in these areas included: Nuclear Development
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Page 29
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Rockefeller Center
Mr. Rockefeller was associated actively with Rockefeller
Center for 42 years, starting in 1936 when he joined the board of
directors of the center, the world-famous business and
entertainment center in mid-town Manhattan. He was board chairman,
1953-56 and 1958-66, and also served on the executive and finance
committees. During his stewardship as board chairman, the Uniroyal
Building addition and the Time & Life Building were built. He also
had a hand in the construction of two neighboring skyscrapers, the
Sperry Rand Building in 1962 and the New York Hilton Hotel at
Rockefeller Center, completed in 1963.
For ten years beginning in 1947, Mr. Rockefeller was a
member of the board of directors of Chase National Bank and its
successor, The Chase Manhattan Bank, resulting from a merger with
The Bank of Manhattan Company.
The New York Stock Exchange seat that had been owned by
John D. Rockefeller was purchased by Laurance in 1937 from his
grandfather's estate. He sold the seat in 1958.
The New York University Graduate School of Business
Administration conferred its 1963 C. Walter Nichols Award on Mr.
Rockefeller as a business leader whose career has demonstrated
integrity, enterprise and service. In his acceptance remarks, he
stressed that business leadership carried with it a responsibility
for "involvement in good works in our society."
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Page 30
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Mr. Rockefeller was a founding trustee of the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund and served as president and, later, chairman from
1958 to 1980 when he stepped down and was vice chairman for two
years. From 1982 to 1985, Mr. Rockefeller was an advisory trustee.
The operations of the Fund, or RBF, reflect the wide range of
philanthropic interests and responsibilities shared by the five
brothers and other family members who are among its trustees. The
RBF was established by the brothers in 1940.
Its programs have included financial support of projects
in the fields of international relations, conservation and environ-
ment, population and equal opportunity, among other areas.
Since its founding, the total of all grants made by RBF
through 1989 was $372.7 million.
Among Fund activities in which Mr. Rockefeller has taken
a direct role was the work of the Special Studies Project. Its
first project was an inquiry in depth into the problems and
opportunities confronting the nation in foreign policy, military
preparedness, education and social and economic affairs. More than
one hundred citizens participated in this work and the production
of the first six "Rockefeller Panel Reports" which came from it.
These were issued between 1958 and 1960 and then collected in the
book, Prospect for America. Mr. Rockefeller had taken over as
project chairman in 1958 from his brother, Nelson.
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Page 31
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
The Rockefellers gave pioneering leadership to the
education of black Americans. Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., is
named for Mr. Rockefeller's grandmother, Laura Celestia Spelman,
as are Spelman Halls at Princeton. At the dedication of Spelman
Halls in 1973, Mr. Rockefeller said: "I hope that the name will
long serve to remind those who pass this way that this gentle, but
strong and loving woman had an inspired vision of a nation free
from prejudice and wholly dedicated to the ideal of equality of
opportunity for all people."
He has been interested in the status of women -- in
making fullest use of their talent and training for the benefit of
society and themselves.
In that connection, he has taken part in efforts of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to increase the number of
women trained in the sciences and engineering. He was instrumental
in MIT's creation of a chair for a distinguished woman lecturer,
the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professorship, named for his sister.
Another facet of this work involves the Young Women's
Christian Association. Mr. Rockefeller, a trustee since 1956, was
president of the Board of Trustees of the National Board of the
YWCA of the U.S.A. from 1969 to 1973. In 1962-63, he accompanied
his wife, Mary, then chairman of the YWCA's World Service Council,
on a trip that covered 53,000 miles and 18 countries to see at
first hand the organization's activities around the world. Mrs.
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Page 32
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Rockefeller later became chairman of the International Division.
Airports, Waterfront, Family Court
Vitally interested in New York City's role as a great
airport center, Mr. Rockefeller in 1941 became chairman of the
Aeronautical Committee of the Commerce and Industry Association of
New York. In 1946, Mayor O'Dwyer appointed him to the newly
created New York City Airport Authority.
Mr. Rockefeller was foreman of a 23-member federal
special grand jury impaneled in 1953 to investigate waterfront
crimes in New York, particularly interference with interstate
commerce by threats of violence. After conducting more than fifty
sessions over a year's time and issuing several indictments, the
members of the grand jury were dismissed by District Judge Edward
A. Conger with a commendation for performing an "outstanding public
duty." The work of this and other investigating groups led to
enactment of anti-racketeering laws.
Throughout the fifties, many citizens and groups in New
York City worked toward the establishment of a Family Court which
would have jurisdiction in cases involving family and youth
problems. Mr. Rockefeller took part in this effort. He financed
a two-year study out of which came a strong recommendation for
creation of such a court. The study was sponsored by the
Association of the Bar of the City of New York. The Mayor's
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Page 33
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Committee on the Courts was appointed in 1956, and Mr. Rockefeller
served for three years as a committee member and chairman of the
subcommittee dealing with children, youth and family matters. A
Family Court finally was established in 1962 as part of a general
court revision.
The National Institute of Social Sciences presented its
Gold Medal for distinguished services to humanity to Mr. Rocke-
feller in December 1959. His grandfather and father had received
this award before him, and this was the first time in the
Institute's history that three generations of a family had been so
honored. The citation of Laurance S. Rockefeller read: "Creative
organizer of ventures into new fields of human endeavor for the
growing aspirations of mankind; leader in the conservation of
natural resources and in the development of the medical and social
sciences for the welfare of the individual."
In 1967, the National Institute awarded Gold Medals to
all five Rockefeller brothers in recognition of their individual
and collective services to humanity.
# # #
Miller - Thorndike
Williams -
752
Alice Duer Miller
10
Pigeons on the grass alas.
Four Saints in Three Acts
1874-1942
[written 1927]
1 The white cliffs of Dover, I saw rising steeply
It's a long wa
Out of the sea that once made her [England]
Before the Flowers of Friendship Faded
to go;
11
The White Cliffs [1940]
Friendship Faded.
It's a long wa
secure.
Title [written 1930]
girl I kno
2 But in a world where England is finished and
Goodbye, Pi
dead,
12
Remarks are not literature [said to Hem-
Square,
I do not wish to live.
Ib.
ingway].
It's a long, lo
The Autobiography of Alice B.
heart's ri;
Toklas [written 1930]
John Davison Rockefeller, Jr.
2
In the Shad
1874-1960
13 America is my country and Paris is my
I believe that every right implies a respon
home town and it is as it has come to be. After
sibility; every opportunity, an obligation;
all anybody is as their land and air is. Any-
body is as the sky is low or high, the air heavy
Edmun
every possession, a duty.
Ten Principles: Address in behalf
or clear and anybody is as there is wind or no
of United Service Organizations,
wind there. It is that which makes them and
Sir Christophe
New York [July 8, 1941]
the arts they make and the work they do and
Said "I am goi
the way they eat and the way they drink and
If anybody cal
the way they learn and everything.
Say I am desig
Robert William Service
And so I am an American and I have lived
1874-1958
half my life in Paris, not the half that made
This is the Law of the Yukon, that only the
me but the half in which I made what I made.
strong shall thrive;
An American and France [1936]
John Stuart M
By a mighty et
That surely the weak shall perish, and only
14 In the United States there is more space
Overcame his
the fit survive.
Dissolute, damned and despairful, crippled
where nobody is than where anybody is.
And wrote Pri
This is what makes America what it is.
and palsied and slain,
This is the Will of the Yukon- how she
The Geographical History of
5 George the Thi
America [1936]
Ought never to
makes it plain!
The Law of the Yukon
One can only V
15
What is the answer? [I was silent.] In that
At SO grotesque
5 Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous
case, what is the question?
Dan McGrew,
Last words. From ALICE B. TOKLAS,
And watching his luck was his light-o'-love,
What Is Remembered [1963]
Mary
the lady that's known as Lou.
The Shooting of Dan McGrew
[1907], st. I
6
Trumbull Stickney
What does th
6 The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
1874-1904
very simple. H
But the queerest they ever did see
Americans wan
16 Be still. The Hanging Gardens were a dream.
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
make real what
Be Still [1905]
I cremated Sam McGee.
dence and the
The Cremation of Sam McGee
17 It's autumn in the country I remember.
Rights say, wha
[1907], st. I
lish. While he k
Mnemosyne
7 A promise made is a debt unpaid. Ib. st. 8
no man complet
chance to obtail
"Cert
Edward Lee Thorndike
Gertrude Stein
From
1874-1949
1874-1946
edited
18 The intellect, character and skill possessed
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
¹Set to music by J
8
by any man are the product of certain origi-
2A quatrain in the
Sacred Emily [written 1913]
nal tendencies and the training which they
as a clerihew.
You are all a lost generation.¹
have received.
³George the First
9
Used by Ernest Hemingway as an
George the Second;
Educational Psychology: Briefer
good of George the T
epigraph for The Sun Also Rises
Course [1914]
descended God be
[1926]
TER SAVAGE LANDOR.
lectures on the four
Hemingway states that the remark was originally
reference to his young mechanics, who were "une généra-
See Frazer, 673.1.
made by # garage owner in the Midi to Gertrude Stein in
tion perdue."
"See Jordan, 913.9
Robinson
Robinson
Rockefeller
GEORGE CANBY (Nov.
exercised his talents in the construction and
education, and the administration of university
1960), physician and medice
erganization of a new enterprise and in attracting
medical schools and hospitals. He used his enor-
orn in Baltimore, Md., the sond
dissinguished staff. It was a difficult time for the
mous talents and abilities with industrv and
r Robinson, a business executive
a a of the severe
generosity of spirit. He was perceptive in dealing
)V: He received the A.B. from
the Great De-
with people and was keenly aware of the need to
University in 1899. From 1899
pression. Although all of his goals were not
develop physicians of character in order to ensure
d the Johns Hopkins School
eached at the time, subsequent developments
a progressive increase in the quality of medical
T the vouthful and inspin
Lose demonstrated that Robinson's plans for that
care.
of that new institution.
extical center were built on a sound foundation.
D. in 1903. He then spent
In October 1934. Robinson became visiting
[See C. S. Burwell, "George Canby Robinson."
ogy and two years as reside TRE
professor of medicine at the Peiping Union
Transactions of the Association of American Physicians,
Pennsylvania Hospital, follow
Medical College. After a vear in China, he re-
74 (1961); Robinson's memoirs, Adventures in Medical
rope, working in physiology
mined to the staff of the Johns Hopkins School of
Education (1957); and A. McGehee Harvev, "G.
Canby Robinson: Peripatetic Medical Educator."
Müller's clinic in Munich.
Medicine. where he embarked on the studv
Johns Hopkins Medical Journal, 142 (1978). which
ng to America, Robinson enga
(1236-1937) of what he called "the man within
contains a complete bibliography of his research
e practice. In 1910 he accepted
patient." He had early recognized the im-
contributions.]
om Rufus Cole, who had
gerrance of humanism in medicine, but for the
A. MCGEHEE HARVEY
Johns Hopkins Hospital due
and few years he devoted himself whole-
lent days in Baltimore, to be
bestedly to its studv. His work resulted in the
hvsician at the newly
Meation of The Patient as a Person (1939), a
Rockefeller Institute. At the
saly of the social aspects of illness.
ROCKEFELLER, JOHN DAVISON,
he encountered an outstario
h
1941 Robinson was appointed national di-
JR. (Jan. 29, 1874-May 11, 1960), industrialist
phere created by such men
of the blood donor service of the American
and philanthropist, was born in Cleveland, Ohio,
Pevton Rous, Alexis
M
Cross. For his accomplishments in this ser-
the son of John D. Rockefeller, founder of the
Samuel J. Meltzer, and
25 well as for his other contributions to
Standard Oil combine, and Laura Celestia Spel-
1913, when he left to because
sheine, he was awarded the Medal of Merit in
man. The boy was reared to expect a life of serious
sor of medicine at Washin
147. At the end of World War II, he retired
hard work, religious observance, great financial
Louis, Robinson was thoros
in the Hopkins faculty and became executive
responsibility, and social service. Both parents
: scientific spirit as applied
to
votory of the Maryland Tuberculosis As-
were devout Baptists of a strong fundamentalist
and was fully prepared to
seation. In 1955 he retired again. His memoirs
cast, and Laura Spelman's mother had been a
to the schools of medicine
age published as Adventures in Medical Educa-
militant supporter of the Anti-Saloon League.
1 later be associated. On
(1957).
The elder Rockefeller, while giving both time and
ed Marion Boise; they had
Robinson was also editor in chief of the Journal
money to his church, also set his son an example of
Carical Investigation from its founding in 1924
ruthless devotion to efficiency, rational organ-
Robinson played a major
and 1930 and served as president of the As-
ization, and hard work that had made him the
constructing the teaching
excession of American Physicians in 1933. He
greatest moneymaker of the age of individual
artment of medicine, partics
in Greenport, N.Y.
enterprise.
20. when he served first 29
abinson's early studies were in the bacte-
The Rockefellers lived in a comfortable mid-
dean. His effectiveness E1
Subgy of meningitis, but his principal research
dle-class house on Cleveland's Euclid A venue, but
ppointment in 1920 as dem
were related to cardiovascular di-
it was at Forest Hill, their summer home outside
dicine at Vanderbilt Unive
He applied the technique of electrocar-
Cleveland, that the family was happiest. "JDR,
eceived money for the build
to the studv of cardiac hvthmias and
Jr.," as he later preferred to be called, had few
medical school. While
developed a method for determination of the
playmates besides his sisters and the son of the
he Vanderbilt University Sd
Ind gases. His later work was mainlv in oc-
caretaker. His father soon found that his business
obinson served as pro
regional medicine and the relationship between
dictated a move to New York, and after several
hedicine and director
and patient.
vears in residential hotels the Rockefellers settled
nedicine at the Johns
Linson lived during a period that has been
down in a spacious brownstone.
cine for one year (1921-
acclaimed as the "heroic age in American
Rockefeller attended private schools in New
inderbilt in 1928. the school
He stands out as one of the principal
York and had a private tutor during the long visits
IS outstanding skill in the
responsible for the gigantic strides in
the family made to Cleveland. In 1893 he entered
ral institutions and his
education and research made during that
Brown University. He was popular with his
ing facultv.
tuch marked the creation of medicine's
classmates, who called him "Johnny Rock," and
binson became director
base. He contributed importantly in the
none of them, he was convinced, stood in awe of
inion of the Cornell
areas of academic medicine-the care
the great wealth that he would one day control.
and New York Hospital
the pursuit of research, medical
He later confessed that his college days had been
547
Rockefeller
Rockefeller
the happiest of his life. Rockefeller was not a
The congressional investigations that followed
brilliant scholar, but he worked hard at his studies
did not hesitate to lay the responsibility for the
that the medic
and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated
disorders at Rockefeller's feet, and he quickly
Rockefeller Fo
in 1897.
adopted a radically different policy. Canada's
ploding new SC
Rockefeller never developed an outstanding
W. L. Mackenzie King, an expert on labor
University. In
talent for business, nor did his father ever press
relations, conducted for him a thorough study of
end of Manhatt
him to do so. After college he entered the New
the problem and recommended a plan for em-
medieval art i
York office of Standard Oil, where he performed
ployee representation. Rockefeller went to the
thousands of vis
miscellaneous tasks for his father. On Oct. 9,
mining camps, where his willingness to listen, and
Having entere
1901, he married Abigail (Abby) Aldrich,
his many informal speeches in which he empha-
rapidly growing
daughter of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode
sized the responsibilities and the rights of both
the end of the
Island. They had six children, all of whom went
management and labor and appealed for a sense of
after the beginn
on to notable careers.
mutual purpose between the two, helped to
a long-term le:
In these vears much of the mushrooming
heal the wounds and provided for a modified
taxed real estate
Rockefeller fortune was being channeled into the
"company union" arrangement that would last
plan to build skv
philanthropies that were the brainchildren of such
until the new era of labor ferment during the
other enterpris
Rockefeller aides as Abraham and Simon Flexner
Great Depression.
dustry. The r
and Frederick T. Gates. But by far the larger part
A few years later he reprinted several of these
construction of
was being tranferred from petroleum, where it
speeches and magazine articles under the title
was not comple
was being made, to industries more acutelv in
The Personal Relation in Industry (1923). He
provided empl
need of fresh capital. Pleased with his son's han-
demanded that capital realize that the men were
New York's nu
dling of the sale of Mesabi Range iron ore
working for more than mere wages and deserved
eventually revea
properties to J. P. Morgan in 1901, the elder
a say in their destinies. He also adjured labor to
making money
Rockefeller gave him the responsibility for
recognize the many other claims on company
Project after
overseeing the management of the Colorado Fuel
income besides their wages. No businessman in
sites, conservati
and Iron Company, in which he owned a 40
the future, he asserted, would be free to consider
support of high
percent interest. The assignment brought JDR,
profit the only motivating force in his affairs. while
burg, colonial C
Jr., the most devastating publicity of his life and
labor must recognize that low wages are not the
and rebuilt when
plunged him deeply into the pressing national
result of large profits. "The most successful en-
dream of the Re
problem of labor-management relations.
terprises." he wrote, "have been those which have
a longtime resi
The management of the Colorado Fuel and
been so well organized and so efficient that the
America's most
Iron Company had long blocked all attempts to
laborers were paid high wages. the consuming
spectacular regi
unionize its miners. An even tougher breed
public enjoyed declining prices, and the owners
and the Grand
than their eastern counterparts, the western
realized large profits."
protection. Bro
miners were fully as determined to achieve
After World War I, Rockefeller devoced
to Fun
company recognition of their right to bargain
himself almost exclusively to public service and
and library
collectively. The result was a strike in 1914 that
philanthropy. His leadership of the Interchurch
led management to close the mines and evict the
World Movement in the early 1920's is offer
miners' families from company-owned houses.
cited as the reason for its collapse. but that farvous
nonstriking miners, the state militia was brought
relations, he endowed Riverside Church. 1 -
shipping publicity remarks. College the
fod been leveled
Penerously assis
The militant element among the unionists
bureaucratized structure was doomed from to
was to
fomented confrontations between striking and
start. Undiscouraged about the future of interfiew
supers would S
ficst H.
in, and soon the area around Ludlow, Colo.,
sectarian church on New York's Riverside Drive
Name. attribute
was a battleground on which more than forty
built it in stunning gothic stvle,
off exc
people were killed in a series of skirmishes. One
Harry Emerson Fosdick to
si:
event has been transmogrified into the legend
minister.
that company thugs and militiamen also shot and
returned the toast offered him bv the burghess
Never having tasted alcohol in any form
his qu ti
killed defenseless women and children. The truth
is that two women and eleven children crawled
Rheims, whose great cathedral he had to
US. meanced delegate 19 "
by
into a cave to escape the gunfire and died of
restore after World War I, with a glass of
Angresite that
suffocation, but young Rockefeller, because of his
water!), Rockefeller believed that
stubborn support of a management that was trv-
prohibition was the only answer to cirrect
Rockefelle
drinking, but when the "noble experiment
the East Rive
ing to treat new problems with ancient remedies,
came to be held responsible by the general public
ignobly, he came out strongly for repeal
reli
for the "Ludlow massacres."
Eighteenth Amendment. Meanwhile. he
5
that
th
belief
in
548
Rockefeller
Rodzinski
d
philanthropies grouped in the
modest, good-looking, rather lonely man whose
Foundation kept abreast of the ex-
head could not be turned, Rockefeller proved that
and quickly
ploding new sciences by organizing Rockefeller
attainment of the golden mean owes nothing to
Canada's
expert on labor
Universiry.InFan.he Tryon Park, at the northern
money or to its lack. Abby Rockefeller died in
installed a great collection of
1948, and on Aug. 15, 1951. Rockefeller married
horough study
a plan for cm. of
medieval art in the Cloisters that still draws
Martha Baird Allen, a concert pianist and widow
even as the city itself decays.
of one of his Brown classmates. His father died in
went to the
a scheme to redevelop the
1937, but for the rest of his life, he insisted upon
to listen, and
/hith he empha-
rapidly growing midtown section of New York at
being called John D. Rockefeller, Jr., because, he
the end of the 1920's, Rockefeller found himself
said, there would always be only one John D.
rights of both
after the beginning of the Great Depression with
Rockefeller. He died in Tucson, Ariz.
led for a sense of
long-term lease on several blocks of heavily
two, helped to
a cared real estate. He plunged ahead with a striking
[Raymond B. Fosdick, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., A
for a modified
plan to build skyscrapers that would house, among
Portrait (1956), is by Rockefeller's longtime legal ad-
viser but is well balanced and contains many excerpts
that would last
other enterprises, the new network radio in-
from revealing family letters. Nancy W. Newhall,
ent during the
dustry. The result, Rockefeller Center, the
A Contribution to the Heritage of Every American:
construction of which spanned the depression and
The Conservation Activities of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
several of these
was not completed until after World War II,
(1957), details one phase of his philanthropy. For
under the title
provided employment for thousands. became
examples of the paranoid attacks. one from the Left and
ry (1923). He
New York's number-one tourist attraction, and
one from the Right, that the Rockefellers have
the men were
eventually revealed that the Rockefeller talent for
inspired, see Emanuel M. Josephson. Rockefeller
es and deserved
making money was intact.
"Internationalist," The Man Who Rules the World
idjured labor to
Project after project for preservation of historic
(1952). and Morris A. Bealle, The House of Rockefeller
sites, conservation of areas of natural beauty, and
(1959). William Manchester, A Rockefeller Family
is on company
businessman in
Portrait (1958), is an even-tempered précis of others'
support of higher education followed. Williams-
works. Many of the transcripts in the Oral History
free to consider
burg. colonial capital of Virginia, was restored
Collection of Columbia University have references to
his affairs, while
and rebuilt when Rockefeller made a reality of the
Rockefeller, especially those of Flora Rhind on the
ages are not the
dream of the Reverend William A. R. Goodwin,
Rockefeller Foundation and Horace M. Albright on
successful en-
a longtime resident of the area. It is one of
conservation.]
lose which have
America's most popular historic shrines. The
ALBRO MARTIN
ficient that the
spectacular regions around Jackson Hole, Wvo.,
the consuming
and the Grand Tetons came under Rockefeller's
ind the owners
protection. Brown, Dartmouth, the United Ne-
gro College Fund, the New York Public Librarv,
feller devoted
and the librarv of the University of Tokvo, which
RODZINSKI, ARTUR (Jan. 2, 1892-Nov.
lic service and
had been leveled by the earthquake of 1923, were
27, 1958), conductor, was born at Spalato, Dal-
e Interchurch
generously assisted.
matia (now Split, Yugoslavia), the son of Josef
1920's is often
Rockefeller had learned, like his father, that
Rodzinski, a Polish-born physician in the Aus-
ut that fatuous,
publicity was to be avoided because the news-
trian army, and Jadwiga Wiszmiewska. In 1897
med from the
papers would sensationalize even his most ear-
the family moved to Lvov, Poland. There, as a
re of interfaith
nest remarks. He saw careless writers begin, after
teenager, Artur first became seriously interested
Church, a non-
a time, to attribute his well-meant metaphor about
in music and commenced piano lessons. Upon
verside Drive,
snipping off excess rosebuds so that a few might
graduation from secondary school he attended the
persuaded Dr.
grow to great size and beautv, to his father. But he
University of Lvov, where, at his father's insis-
ome its first
maintained a quiet equanimity and in the bright
tence, he studied law and obtained the LL.D.
glare of his talented sons was slipping into
Music remained Rodzinski's first love, how-
anv form (he
obscuritv by 1946 when Senator Warren Austin,
ever. Deferred from World War I military ser-
le burghers of
U.S. delegate to the United Nations (UN). an-
vice because of a postappendectomy infection, he
e had helped
nounced that the UN's worried quest for a
enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Music, where
lass of Perrier
homesite in the United States had been solved
he obtained a diploma after concentrated piano
hat outright
with Rockefeller's gift of a $9 million plot of land
study with Georg von Lalewicz. In 1917 Ro-
to excessive
on the East River in New York. He had long since
dzinski married fellow pianist Ilsa Reimesch; they
iment" failed
abandoned religious fundamentalism and still
had one son before being divorced.
repeal of the
believed that the future would prove the validity
In 1918 he returned to Lvov to undertake a
c. he saw toit
of his belief in world brotherhood. A slight,
career in music. After eking out a living for sev-
549
ROCKEFELLER
599
"trust" gave way to the Stan-
on New Jersey, a modern holding
organization was the largest and
marketer of pe-
producer operated throughout the
of Standard Oil's operations,
A and private
that intrigued
derd's attorney, S. C. T. Dodd, such
decried the legal innova-
the trust agreement and later the
to centralize control of dozens
independent companies in Rocke-
associates. Independent oil men,
the orderly world that Standard
the company's resort-
a to achieve its disci-
publicity led to
challenges to Standard's centralized
from 1882 on and to its ultimate disso-
several independent companies by the
Court in 1911.
as 1895, Rockefeller had begun to
daily management of Standard over to
He spent several of the succeed-
transferring much of the large profits
oil business-where they could not all
ested at that time-to two vigorous
eller, founder of the
industries, iron-ore mining and New
COURTESY OF ROCKEFELLER FAMILY a ASSOC./FRANK EHRENBERG
mercial banking.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was known for his philanthro-
ted in 1917 by John
anthropy on a large scale was Rocke-
pies, including the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
second career, in which he came to be
R, rok'a-fel-ar, John
better known than in oil. Cynics have
at his notion of religious stewardship, but
ROCKEFELLER, rok'a-fel-ar, John D., Jr. (1874-
an industrialist and phfl
Ber deeply believed that he had a duty
1960), American philanthropist. John Davison
nost among the men
who
afer some of his huge fortune to humani-
Rockefeller, Jr., was born in Cleveland, Ohio,
troleum industry and
use rather than merely leave it to his
on Jan. 29, 1874. The fifth and last child and
philanthropy, started
d American medical
He eventually devoted hundreds of mil-
only son of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., and Laura
on Rockefeller was born science
dollars to the improvement of American
Spelman Rockefeller, he was reared in the strict
practice, education, and research. The
fundamentalist Baptist environment in which
unty, N. Y., on July 8,
feller Foundation was the chief vehicle
his father had been brought up. During child-
:P a strict Baptist, in
philanthropy, but the General Education
hood he had few playmates and was taught to
st circumstances, and
devoted to improving the deplorable state
some extent by tutors, but in 1893 he entered
business college course, after
tion in the South, and the University of
Brown University, where he lived like an aver-
a produce commission
also were major beneficiaries.
age student. Not a brilliant scholar, he worked
employer to enter the
Backefeller embodied in one person most of
hard and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
sine from oil in 1862, three
traditional traits of the Victorian business-
For a few years after graduation in 1897,
Drake drilled the first
Fully materialistic in his equating of
JDR, Jr., as he preferred to be called, assisted
nsylvania. By 1867, Rock
profit with its social significance, he
his father in his numerous business affairs, with
owner of the firm, by then
montheless realized that wealth was no sub-
limited success. But he gained much notoriety
drews, and Flagler. From
for religious faith and personal virtue.
and some praise for his solution of the labor
reat Standard Oil "trust
Baptist heritage led him to adhere throughout
problems that arose in 1914 at the Colorado
at least 70% of all refining
to the evangelical virtues of total abstinence
Fuel & Iron Co., one of his father's investments.
Inited States, and Rockels
alcohol and tobacco. Neither Rockefeller
The militancy of the Western miners combined
of over $1 billion, by fat
his wife cared for society, rich foods, or
with the intransigence of company management
furnishings, although he took a strong in-
led to an impasse, repeated violence, and the
realized that in controlling
trest in the development of his superb estate,
deaths of more than 40 people, including two
the business lay the means
Pacantico Hills, near Tarrytown, N.Y. Outliving
women and 11 children. The congressional in-
rationalizing the chaotic
of
many years all of the men who once shared
vestigations that followed laid the blame on
870's. Thus he saved it
with him the epithet of "robber baron," he came
young Rockefeller, but he, meanwhile, had per-
of extractive industries:
the end to be a highly photogenic, spry old
suaded Canada's W.L. Mackenzie King, an ex-
ion, depressed prices, low
gatleman, whose habit of carrying a pocketful
pert on labor relations, to study the problem and
vage levels, and unsafe
shiny new dimes to present to small children
recommend a plan for employee representation in
The firm was incorporated
the delight of newspaper photographers
company affairs. Rockefeller lived among the
Standard Oil Co. Its manage
surywhere. He died in Ormond Beach, Fla., on
miners' families for several weeks and made
e vital importance of constantly
May 23, 1937.
many speeches in which he emphasized the re-
ion costs and of helding done
ALBRO MARTIN, Harvard University
sponsibilities and rights of both management and
for rail and, later, pipel
Further Reading: Collier, P., and Horowitz, D., The
labor and appealed for a spirit of mutual pur-
Backefellers: An American Dynasty (New Am. Lib. 1977);
pose rather than class conflict.
he 1870's and 1880's, Rocks
Sawke, David F., ed., John D. Rockefeller Interview 1917-
Rockefeller realized, as had his father dur-
ssociates remained constast
THE (Meckler Pub. 1984); Nevins, Allen, John D. Rockefel-
es of developments threates
T.
The Heroic Age of American Enterprise, 2 vols. (1940;
ing the formative years of the petroleum indus-
the industry. By 1899,
wgrint, Kraus 1976); Rockefeller, John D., Random Reminis-
try, that a business that did not make a profit
when
(Ences of Men and Events (1909; reprint, Ayer 1973).
would be a handicap to society. He wrote in his
600
ROCKEFELLER
book on labor relations, The Personal Relation
ROCKEFELLER, rok'a-fel-ar, Nelson (190)
in Industry, that "the most successful enterprises
1979), American public official, who served
have been those which have been so well or-
term as vice president of the United States and
ganized and so efficient that the laborers were
four terms as governor of New York.
paid high wages, the consuming public enjoyed
The second son of John D. Rockefeller,
declining prices, and the owners realized large
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was born on July
profits."
1908, in Bar Harbor, Me. He graduated from
After World War I, Rockefeller turned from
Dartmouth College in 1930. Early in his CLIEN
business to the direction of his father's phi-
he invested in a Standard Oil subsidiary
lanthropies and the growing list of his own
Venezuela and developed a lifelong interest
projects. He eventually headed the Rockefeller
Latin America.
Institute for Medical Research, the National
In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt
Education Board, which was devoted chiefly to
pointed him coordinator of inter-American alm
improving Southern education, and other family
and assistant secretary of state for American
foundations. Deeply religious, Rockefeller made
public affairs. He left the government that your
gifts to all faiths but was especially proud of
but was called back in 1950 to be the chairman
nonsectarian Riverside Church, which he built
of President Truman's international development
and endowed.
advisory board. In 1953, President Eisenhare
His benefactions to the art and architecture
named Rockefeller to head a presidential advises
of New York City included the medieval collec-
committee on government organization, a god
tion in the Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park and the
that ultimately recommended the plans that
heroic midtown office development, Rockefeller
sulted in the establishment of the Department
Center. The latter, a collection of sleek build-
Health, Education and Welfare, the U.S.
ings that are rendered more aesthetically pow-
formation Agency, and reorganization of the
erful with the construction of each undistin-
partments of agriculture, defense, and instier
guished postwar structure, became one of the
Rockefeller was elected governor of New
most important tourist attractions in the city,
York in 1958 and reelected three times.
and the symbol of 20th century urbanism.
inaugurated a dramatic growth in state service
Rockefeller's other philanthropies were nu-
in the areas of education, transportation, beath
merous, including Brown and Harvard universi-
and welfare, housing, and environmental protest
ties, Dartmouth, the United Negro College
tion. His administration was responsible to
Rockefeller held high
Fund, the New York Public Library, and the li-
substantial tax increases, and for many years de
serving as vice presi
brary of the University of Tokyo, which had
state operated on a pay-as-you-go basis
been devastated by the earthquake of 1923.
balanced budget.
On the whole his record of public service
assources he was confin
Of all the Rockefeller gifts, however, none
Washington and his terms as governor Marif
48 in the House and 9
has been more newsworthy than his support of
the reconstruction of colonial Williamsburg, and
tributed to Rockefeller's reputation as a
sworn in as the 4
ever, he began to move toward more conservation classes
Republican. Beginning in the late 1960's,
19, 1974.
the donation of a $9 million plot of land on the
the president Rockefel
East River in New York to be the permanent
site of the United Nations.
positions, a change of direction his critics
and faithful subordin
was a conscious effort to generate support
him to head the dor
In 1901, Rockefeller married Abby Aldrich,
daughter of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of
his presidential ambitions.
airman of the presiden:
-
Rhode Island. Their marriage of nearly 50 years
After repeatedly denying interest in the
Intelligence Agency
produced a daughter and five sons. Rockefeller
dency, Rockefeller made it known that be
to serve on several ot
accept a draft should the 1960 Republica
He was never fu
died in Tucson, Ariz., on May 11, 1960.
The eldest son, JOHN DAVISON ROCKEFELLER
vention offer him the nomination. Richark of
kcan conservative wi
III (1906-1978), after graduating from Prince-
Nixon, however, was already assured
November 1975, he
wroving himself fron:
ton in 1929, entered into many of his father's
nomination. In 1964, Rockefeller emerged as the
running mate for Pr.
activities. He became chairman of the board of
the Rockefeller Foundation and the General Edu-
cation Fund, and a director of Rockefeller Cen-
divorce and remarriage in
favorite for the presidential nomination.com
Laving office he return
pursuits in busin
ter, Inc., and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
brought about a decline in his popularity
For the second son, NELSON ALDRICH ROCKE-
was not able to overcome. Nevertheless
skefeller was married
in 1930 a union that
FELLER, see separate article.
paigned hard against Sen. Goldwate
nounced his candidacy in
The third son, LAURANCE SPELMAN ROCKE-
FELLER
(1910-
), took up a business career
leader of the Republican Barry Conservative
3
Curretta beg (Happy) Murp
After their divorce
and became a member of the New York Stock
but was defeated the nomination on electio
Goldwater won
stack, on Jan. 26, 197
sons. He died in
Exchange. He became chairman of Rockefeller
Rc
Center, Inc., in 1958.
Rockefeller's third de
The fourth son, WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER
dency, in 1968, was in
Florida
(1912-1973), spent several years with the So-
paign by
CALFELLER CENTER, rol
cony-Vacuum Oil Company. He settled in Mor-
his late start and
rilton, Ark., in 1953, and was governor of
the lead in delegate strength that had
aged his effort, and he was not able to bons
wing 19 buildings
in central Manhatt:
Arkansas for two terms (1967-1971). A racial
moderate, he was the first Republican to hold
up by Richard Nixon. That campaign
Structure, were constr
which the 70-story R
The original 14 b
the office since Reconstruction.
presidential quest.
The youngest son, DAVID ROCKEFELLER
After resigning from the
(1915-
), a banker, was associated with the
cember 1973, Rockefeller
Ir. under the direction
Chase National Bank. After its merger with the
Commission on Critical Choices
with Each of the skyse
Bank of Manhattan, he became executive vice
which he organized for the purpose Auge
ing national policy alternatives. hire
light and air. With t
to one another
president of the Chase Manhattan Bank, and
later president of the bank and chairman of its
President Gerald Ford nominated After
restau
executive committee.
vice president of the United States.
his
and
ALBRO MARTIN, Harvard University
tended Congressional inquiries into
theat
ROCKEFELLER CENTER-ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY
601
er,
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, rok'a-fel-ar, a
philanthropic organization chartered by the New
York state legislature on May 14, 1913, "to pro-
mote the well-being of mankind throughout the
n D. Rock
world." Founded by John D. Rockefeller, Sr.,
was born
it was established following a long experience
He
with philanthropic giving-experience that con-
J.
vinced him of the wisdom of entrusting substan-
rd
tial sums of money to responsible citizens to be
a Lifelong
used for the benefit of society. The foundation
was, however, the first of the Rockefeller phi-
lanthropies to operate on a worldwide basis.
The Rockefeller Foundation's activities are
concentrated in seven major areas. Worldwide
programs include the conquest of hunger, the
control of population and improvement of health
care, the resolution of conflict in international
relations, and the growth of education in the
developing nations. The activities of the foun-
dation in the United States are directed toward
t ded the plans
the attainment of environmental quality; equal
of the Depart
opportunity for all; and cultural development,
Welfare, the U
especially in drama, literature, and music.
organization of
The funds and policies of the foundation are
defense, and
controlled by an independent board of unsala-
ted governor
ried trustees who award grants to universities,
cted three times
research institutes, and other qualified agencies.
growth in state
The programs of the foundation are also sup-
1 transportation
ported by a longstanding fellowship and scholar-
environmental
OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
ship fund. The foundation conducts its own
1 was responsible
Rockefeller held high office under four U.S.
research, but only in the fields of agriculture and
and for many
serving as vice president under Gerald Ford.
virology. No grants are made for personal aid
-as-you-go basis
to individuals or for the establishment, building,
or operation of local institutions.
ord of public
esources he was confirmed by a vote of 287
Rockefeller originally endowed the founda-
erms as governor service
in the House and 90 to 7 in the Senate.
tion with $100 million, a figure he later increased
reputation as
was sworn in as the 41st vice president on
to $183 million. Since its inception, the founda-
in the late 1960's, a
19, 1974.
tion's endowment has grown, and total assets are
oward more conserv
Vice president Rockefeller proved to be a
estimated to be between $700 and $800 million.
ection his critics
and faithful subordinate. President Ford
to generate support
him to head the domestic council and to
ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY, rok'a-fel-or, a
Sairman of the president's commission on the
private, coeducational university dedicated to
interest in the
Press
Central Intelligence Agency. He also was desig-
graduate level education and advanced research.
it known that he
to serve on several other boards and com-
It was founded in 1901 by John D. Rockefeller,
1960 Republican
sions. He was never fully accepted by the
Sr., to "conduct, assist, and encourage investi-
omination. Richard
ablican conservative wing during his term,
gations in the sciences and arts of hygiene,
ilready assured
of
in November 1975, he announced that he
medicine and surgery, and allied subjects in the
removing himself from consideration as a
nature and causes of disease and the methods of
emerged as the
ble running mate for President Ford in 1976.
its prevention and treatment, and to make knowl-
ential nomination.
leaving office he returned to New York and
edge relating to these various subjects available
in 1963, however
private pursuits in business, politics, and the
for the protection of the health of the public
his popularity that
and the improved treatment of disease and in-
Nevertheless, he
Rockefeller was married to Mary Todhunter
jury." Rockefeller University's enrollment totals
in late 1963 and
Chuk in 1930, a union that produced five chil-
approximately 250.
Barry Goldwater,
&
ben. After their divorce in 1962 he married
The university grants the degree of doctor of
conservative
on the first bake wise
Mirgaretta (Happy) Murphy, with whom he
philosophy in life science, behavioral science,
tad two sons. He died in New York City, of a
theoretical physics, mathematics and logic, and
general election.
heart attack, on Jan. 26, 1979.
philosophy. The postdoctoral degree of doctor
impaign for the press
ROBERT J. HUCKSHORN
of medical science is granted in numerous fields
early in the
Florida Atlantic University
of concentration; choice of a major is left to
he finally announced
the student and is unrestricted by the university.
cillation seriously das
CKEFELLER CENTER, rok'a-fel-ar, a building
It was originally named the Rockefeller Insti-
not able to overco
amplex in central Manhattan, New York City,
tute for Medical Research. Its charter was ex-
that had been boilt
emprising 19 buildings on 22 acres (9
tended in 1908 to enable it "to carry on such
campaign ended
Intares). The original 14 buildings of the cen-
educational work along the lines of its corporate
of which the 70-story RCA building is the
purposes as it may deem wise." The charter was
he governorship in Dr
entral structure, were constructed between 1931
further amended in 1954 making the institute
devoted himself to the
1940 under the direction of John D. Rocke-
part of the University of the State of New York
Choices for America,
letter, Jr. Each of the skyscrapers was planned
with authority to grant advanced degrees. The
purpose of develop
relation to one another to maximize use of
first students were admitted in 1955, and the in-
tives. In August 1974
azilable light and air. Within the complex are
nominated him to be
business offices, shops, restaurants, broadcasting
stitute was renamed Rockefeller University in
1965. General control of the university and
States. After
adios, exhibition rooms, and Radio City Music
management of its endowment are vested in a
quiries into his finan-
all, the largest indoor theater in Manhattan.
15-member board of trustees.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
erstanding of American society
Trustees: D. Rockefeller, Jr (Chair.); Abby M. O'Neill (Vice-Chair.); Laura
Chasin; Peggy Dulany; J. H. Evans; P. C. Goldmark, Jr; Neva R. Goodwin;
es major support for the Center
H. B. Price; G. Putnam; L. Rockefeller; R. C. Rockefeller; Sharon P.
Public Affairs Program, makes
Rockefeller; S. C. Rockefeller; S. F. Starr; R. E. Train.
rest: the study of public policy,
Officers: Pres. C. G. Campbell; Exec. Vice-Pres. R. A. Phillips, Jr; Sec. B.
on the economy at the national
R. Shute, Jr; Treas. D. G. Fernald.
ding of the requirements for a
Address: 1290 Ave of the Americas, New York, NY 10104.
nination of ways by which the
e achieved and sustained; and
Telephone: (212) 373-4200.
rity policies. The Foundation
does not make grants directly
Rockefeller Foundation
Founded in 1913 by John D. Rockefeller, Sr to promote the well-being of
mankind throughout the world.
1987); annual expenditure
Activities: Operates nationally and internationally through programmes in
agricultural sciences, arts and humanities, equal opportunities, inter-
Smith Richardson, Jr; Heather
national relations and population sciences. Projects are carried out primar-
hardson; S. S. Richardson.
ily through grants to universities, research institutes and other qualified
Pres. R. R. Richardson; Vice-
agencies. The agricultural sciences programme supports selected projects
oble.
to improve food production for the poorest sector of the population in
developing countries, currently focusing on schemes concerning food cereal,
York, NY 10028.
rice and babesiosis (a haemo-parasitic disease), and incorporating technol-
ogy transfer and appropriate biotechnology. The arts and humanities
programme encourages creative work by individuals and in secondary
schools. The equal opportunities programme seeks to devise effective
strategies for improving the employment and income status of minority
brothers and their sister for
groups. The international relations programme aims to strengthen the role
nd international philanthropic
of independent research bodies in the formation of US foreign policy
ic for funds.
and generally in the articulation of long-range goals and interests for
rnationally through grants to
governments regarding international security and economic co-operation.
:ts programmes of its own. Its
The population sciences programme supports basic research on the physiol-
using on the use of renewable
ogy of reproduction, applied research directed towards the improvement
ing arms control, halting the
of contraceptive methods, and policy studies to help shape national policy
exchanges and co-operation
formulation. The health sciences programme deals with research into major
I Eastern Europe to enhance
diseases in developing countries, the provision of locally-run health care
couraging collaborative action
facilities and the rationalization of available information on relevant health
ons in the city concerned with
topics.
"Non-profit Sector", assisting
Publications: Annual report and special reports; RF.
-profit-making ventures, and
Finance: Total assets $1,828,914,091 (Dec. 1988); annual expenditure
e giving, the development of
$77,372,147 (1988).
nagement of these ventures,
Trustees: Dr J. R. Evans (Chair); A. Alda; J. Brademas; H. Brown; H.
ecial Concerns", supporting a
Cisneros; P. Dulany; F. FitzGerald; D. Garcia; P. C. Goldmark, Jr; Dr R.
an rights in Southern Africa,
E. Goldsberry; Dr W. D. Hopper; Dr K. N. Horn; Dr A. S. Ilchman; Dr
en the USA and the People's
R. H. Jenrette; T. Johnson; A. Levitt, Jr; R. C. Maynard; E. H. Norton;
arts.
H. Woolf.
Officers: Pres. P. C. Goldmark, Jr; Sr Vice-Pres. Dr K. Prewitt; Vice-Pres.
1987); annual expenditure
(Admin) S. Ferris; Vice-Pres. (Communications) F. Karel III; Sec. L.
Mullen.
449
SEP-12-1991 05:00 FROM
TO
912024566218 P.01
91 SEP 12 FAX
PLEASE DELIVER THE FOLLOWING TO:
Machille hix
The White House
Fax didny
FROM:
Try again
nash Castro
30 Rockefeller Plaza, Room 5600
New York, NY 10112
Tel. 212-649-5600
Fax. 212-649-5939
TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES
31
(INCLUDING COVER SHEET)
CEP 12 1001 05:01 FROM
TO
012024506210
0.02
-
-
-
September 12, 1991
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Michelle Nix -- The White House
FROM:
Nash Cash
SUBJECT:
Laurance S. Rockefeller Anecdotes
Per our discussion, here is a copy of Mr. Rockefeller's Princeton
speech which I feel will provide you with the anecdotal material you seek. His remarks
begin on page 5; however, I thought I would also send the introductory remarks by Dean
Stokes of the Woodrow Wilson School.
I will call you on the Monday, as we agreed. Meanwhile, 1 will think of
more anecdotal material on the basis of my long association with him.
I will be grateful if you will let me know which items you select, for
Mr. Rockefelier's remarks have been shared only with a few friends, und we would like to
make sure there are no implications in anything you may choose to use.
Many thanks!
NC/efb
Moreto
Attachment
come
ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND / 361
amunity services needed by
1980), pp. 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48. See also Annual Reports of the
als can maintain reasonably
foundation, published continuously since 1971.
FRANK KAREL
itals with general dentistry
ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND (RBF). The Rockefeller Brothers Fund
(RBF), a private, grant-making, philanthropic foundation based in New York
cipal hospitals in five of the
through twenty-two urban
City, was established in 1940 by the five sons of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The
brothers, later joined by their sister, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé, provided funds
through annual contributions to the RBF and served as its original trustees. Their
o the problems encountered
purpose was to create a system of joint giving, whereby they could share interests
and responsibilities while carrying on the philanthropic tradition of their father
sicians in nearby practices,
and grandfather. The central concerns of the trustees have consistently been
in four states;
expressed in the fields of conservation, population, cultural development, eco-
nomic development, and international relations.
rain dental students to care
At the outset, the RBF concentrated its activities solely in New York City,
but the scope broadened over the next decade to include national and international
relief and rehabilitation efforts in response to World War II and its aftermath.
By 1950, the fund had developed the philanthropic concept of responsible cit-
to fund objective, third-
izenship in three contexts: New York City, the United States, and the international
cograms it has supported,
community. Guided by this idea, much of the fund's early grant making consisted
antees communicate the
of across-the-board general budgetary support to a wide spectrum of social
thers who can use this
service, cultural, and civic organizations.
The fund's interests have remained broad and flexible over the past four
1 Johnson Foundation's
decades, owing largely to the sensibilities, concerns, and personalities of John
è idea that a variety of
D. (III), Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop, and David Rockefeller, and Abby Rock-
encouraged. Moreover,
efeller Mauzé. While the brothers established the RBF as a way of sharing their
ons and institutions, the
concerns, each brought to bear his own personal and professional interests. John
dividuals or groups of
D. Rockefeller III, who devoted much of his life to philanthropy, was especially
id capability in working
concerned with population issues, strengthening Asian-American relations, and
developing cultural institutions in the United States. Nelson made important
out the foundation: John
contributions to the public life of the country; his offices included governor of
for a Metamorphosis,"
New York and vice-president of the United States. He also served as president
1095; "Wealthy Foun-
of the Museum of Modern Art and was deeply interested in Latin America.
(September 10, 1973),
Laurance, a pioneer venture capitalist, has a fascination for science and tech-
Transfusion for Front-
nology, as well as a strong conservationist bent. Winthrop, who served the state
'p. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21;
of Arkansas in numerous ways, including as governor, had lifelong interests in
S of Dr. Rogers," Sig-
the fields of health, education, and racial equality. David, an art collector and
alysts for Model Build-
Ph.D. in economics who retired as chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank in
, 46, 47; Frank Jones,
1981, remains active in urban development and international relations. Abby
m (March, 1977), pp.
Rockefeller Mauzé brought to the fund her interests in population, the advance-
tions in Health Care,"
ment of education and opportunities for women, and the delivery of social
Young, "Robert Wood
services. The history of RBF grant making reflects both the cooperative nature
August 1979), pp. 13,
of the trustee's effort and the full variety of their lives.
HCM Review (Spring,
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund remained a relatively small foundation during
362 / ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND
its first decade of operation, when total grants for any given year never exceeded
Planned Parentho
$300,000. However, during those years, the fund consistently gave general
conservation. The
support to community service organizations, private hospitals, and other non-
awareness of rela
profit groups. The RBF also established relationships and interests which re-
approached enviro
mained vital for years, including contributions to the Museum of Modern Art,
and conservation
the Legal Aid Society, the Conservation Foundation, Planned Parenthood, the
emerging new en
United Negro College Fund, the New York Zoological Society, and the Colonial
Lindisfarne Assoc
Williamsburg Foundation.
Alchemy Institute
A $58 million gift from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1951-1952 established
RBF activities i
an endowment and considerably increased the fund's level of activity. While
for South America
expenditures for the years 1941 through 1950 totalled $2 million, combined
and Middle East, i
grants in 1953 alone exceeded $1 million, and the figure increased thereafter.
opment of West A
The fund received additional large gifts in 1960 and in 1971, through bequests
In New York Cit
from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and his wife, Martha Baird Rockefeller. Under
of the city's neigh
the direction of Dana S. Creel, the RBF staff expanded to keep pace with its
culture, public edi
philanthropic activity over the next twenty-five years, from 1951 to 1975. During
fund assisted signi
this period, the board of trustees was also expanded to include members from
important instituti
outside the Rockefeller family.
coln Center for the
With the expansion in 1951-1952, the fund began to identify special interest
In 1975, after (
areas and take more initiative in grant making. A special program was established
come for the fund
to make grants intended for "experimental or new undertakings" in the fields
total of approximat
of international relations and understanding; strengthened national life; and con-
organizations, incl
servation, population, and resources. The general program grants continued to
Hole Preserve Inc
support nonprofit organizations with local (New York City), national, or inter-
College. In additic
national impact and in many cases were awarded on a regular annual basis. It
organizations, the
is largely through the special program, with its explicitly experimental purpose,
making in subsequ
that the RBF earned its reputation as a flexible and responsive foundation.
The RBF used th
However, it is the combination of the two programs that has encouraged both
program concentra
consistency and creativity in grant making.
domestic developn
Special program grants realized many of the RBF's more visible achievements,
strengthening the I
especially in the national and international fields. The following examples il-
to improve the qu
lustrate the wide range of special grants the RBF has made.
more comprehensi
In 1953, the theological school fellowship program was created for students
in the fields of ec
interested in exploring the possibility of a theological education, as a contribution
public education,
to the religious strength of the country.
human services, e
In 1956, the RBF launched a Special Studies Project to explore "the problems
environment. The
and opportunities facing this country during the coming 10 to 15 years." The
with special emph:
seven panels focused on issues such as national defense and economic growth,
and legal protectio:
and included a distinguished membership of leaders in business, labor, science,
The RBF is gove
and education. The resulting publications series, America at Mid-Century, in-
members of the R
fluenced national public policy goals over the subsequent two decades.
spring and in the
In 1974, the fund's longstanding concern for population problems, demon-
members, meets th
strated most notably through regular grants to the Population Council and to
by one of these bc
ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND / 363
given year never exceeded
Planned Parenthood, was merged with a related interest in natural resource
consistently gave general
conservation. The resulting Environmental Program articulated "a new general
hospitals, and other non-
awareness of relationships among parts of the natural system." The program
S and interests which re-
approached environmental protection through continued support of population
Museum of Modern Art,
and conservation institutions but also attempted to increase understanding of an
Planned Parenthood, the
emerging new environmental ethic through grants to organizations such as the
Society, and the Colonial
Lindisfarne Association, Worldwatch Institute, the Zen Center, and the New
Alchemy Institute.
in 1951-1952 established
RBF activities at the international level, during these years, included grants
level of activity. While
for South American and Asian agricultural development, education in the Near
ed $2 million, combined
and Middle East, improved Asian-American relations, and the economic devel-
gure increased thereafter.
opment of West African nations.
n 1971, through bequests
In New York City, the fund made steady contributions toward the development
3aird Rockefeller. Under
of the city's neighborhoods, as well as to those organizations concerned with
ded to keep pace with its
culture, public education, and improving government and transportation. The
rom 1951 to 1975. During
fund assisted significantly in the early development of several of the city's most
to include members from
important institutions, including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Lin-
coln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Museum of Modern Art.
o identify special interest
In 1975, after careful consideration, the trustees decided that the time had
I program was established
come for the fund to discharge certain long-held "special responsibilities." A
dertakings" in the fields
total of approximately $100 million was appropriated as contributions to eighteen
ed national life; and con-
organizations, including the Japan society, Rockefeller University, the Jackson
gram grants continued to
Hole Preserve Incorporated,* the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Spelman
City), national, or inter-
College. In addition to relieving the fund of further major responsibility to these
1 regular annual basis. It
organizations, the resulting endowment reduction led to a reduced level of grant
ly experimental purpose,
making in subsequent years.
1 responsive foundation.
The RBF used this opportunity to redefine its programs. Currently, the national
hat has encouraged both
program concentrates on agricultural lands preservation, water conservation,
domestic development finance, employment policy and job development, and
ore visible achievements,
strengthening the private, nonprofit sector. The New York City program aims
e following examples il-
to improve the quality of life in the fund's home community by encouraging
nade.
more comprehensive, efficient, and publicly accountable approaches to problems
was created for students
in the fields of economic development, housing and community development,
ication, as a contribution
public education, government efficiency, economic growth and stabilization,
human services, employment and skill development, and the creative living
0 explore "the problems
environment. The international program encourages international cooperation,
g 10 to 15 years.' The
with special emphasis on China and Japan, ecodevelopment in the Caribbean,
: and economic growth,
and legal protection of civil and political liberties in areas such as South Africa.
business, labor, science,
The RBF is governed by a board of fifteen trustees, the majority of whom are
ica at Mid-Century, in-
members of the Rockefeller family. The board meets twice annually, in the
nt two decades.
spring and in the fall. The executive committee, composed of seven board
tion problems, demon-
members, meets three times a year. All RBF appropriations must be approved
ulation Council and to
by one of these bodies. David Rockefeller is currently chairman of the fund.
364 / ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE
William M. Dietel succeeded Dana S. Creel as president in 1975. The RBF,
erable knowledge C
with 1980 assets of about $177 million, employs a program and support staff
yellow fever, and t
of approximately twenty-five members, plus consultants on occasion.
A job of organizing
No detailed, independent history of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has been
The trustees vote
written, although Waldemar A. Neilsen includes a short summary in his book,
mission (which bec
The Big Foundations (1972). The most comprehensive source of information
dation) in the field
about the RBF is its Annual Reports, which have been published with reference
years 1910 through
to every year the fund has operated. The current report is available from the
with the cooperatio
RBF office, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Room 3450, New York, New York
isters, teachers, an
10104.
cation and medicati
RBF records for the years 1941-1976, including all grant-related documents,
attended by more th
are located in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund archive at the Rockefeller Archive
and its prevention.
Center, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York 10591. Research inquiries
sources of infection
may be made of Joseph W. Ernst, Director. Recent documents remain on file
treatment.
in the RBF office library. Records covering the most recent ten years are not
Wickliffe Rose,
publicly available.
now led the founda
AMY P. LONGSWORTH
idea of carrying this
in a wide belt arou
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE (RF). The idea of establishing a
the disease-capsul
foundation independent of the donor and his family, professionally managed,
demonstrate to hun
and with the mandate "to attempt to cure evils at their source" without regard
only means of prev
to national boundaries probably came from Frederick T. Gates, a former Baptist
diately following 19
minister and a long-time associate of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., who exerted
dation was carried t
considerable personal influence on all the Rockefeller philanthropies.
islands. In a typica
Originally it was hoped that such a Rockefeller trust would be chartered by
signments in thirty-
the Congress of the United States, with its organization and program subject to
dation's Internation
continuing congressional review. Legislation was introduced to this end in 1910,
of the countries inv
1911, and 1912, but the Congress, strongly influenced by hostility toward large
Wickliffe Rose h
corporations and their founders, was not receptive to such a proposal.
that to extend the {
The result was that the Rockefeller Foundation was finally incorporated by
to create new instit
the New York state legislature in 1913 with an initial endowment of $35 million
agencies on which
"to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world."
Rockefeller Found:
At their first meeting, on May 14, 1913, under the leadership of John D.
and endow the Scl
Rockefeller, Jr., the trustees of the foundation began to address themselves to
University, the firs
the then-vast problem of how to spend the foundation's funds wisely. They
million in developi.
decided to concentrate the RF's energies in the fields of public health and med-
Belgrade, Buchares
icine, agreeing with Frederick Gates's eloquent arguments that disease is the
Manila, Olso, Prag
supreme ill in human life.
Warsaw, and Zagr
The decision grew from two interrelated factors. First, at the turn of the
Michigan. At the.s:
century, disease was the implacable barrier to human welfare everywhere. Even
that brought promis
in the United States, life expectancy in 1913 was only fifty-two years, compared
health.
with seventy-three years today. One out of every ten American children died in
Medical and pub
the first year of life, compared with one in seventy-two today. Second, consid-
was to become a }
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE / 365
nt in 1975. The RBF,
erable knowledge of many of the great endemic diseases-malaria, hookworm,
gram and support staff
yellow fever, and typhus, for example-was in hand but was not being applied.
on occasion.
A job of organizing, financing, and educating needed to be done.
rothers Fund has been
The trustees voted to continue the programs of the Rockefeller Sanitary Com-
summary in his book,
mission (which became the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foun-
source of information
dation) in the field of hookworm control. The Sanitary Commission had, in the
iblished with reference
years 1910 through 1914, done extensive work in eleven southern states where-
t is available from the
with the cooperation of governmental agencies, charities, women's clubs, min-
New York, New York
isters, teachers, and practicing physicians-massive campaigns of public edu-
cation and medication were carried out. Over 25,000 public meetings were held,
ant-related documents,
attended by more than 2 million people who were given the facts of the disease
ne Rockefeller Archive
and its prevention. Sanitary inspectors examined 250,000 rural homes to check
591. Research inquiries
sources of infection; traveling dispensaries provided free examination and free
cuments remain on file
treatment.
ecent ten years are not
Wickliffe Rose, who had directed the work of the Sanitary Commission and
now led the foundation's International Health Board, had earlier conceived the
AMY P. LONGSWORTH
idea of carrying this hookworm control work abroad, where the disease prevailed
in a wide belt around the equator. Although a relatively effective therapy for
idea of establishing a
the disease-capsules of thymol and salts-was known, the essential job was to
rofessionally managed,
demonstrate to hundreds of millions of people that improved sanitation was the
source" without regard
only means of preventing hookworm infection. Therefore, in the years imme-
Gates, a former Baptist
diately following 1913, the hookworm control activity of the Rockefeller Foun-
eller, Sr., who exerted
dation was carried to fifty-two countries on six continents as well as twenty-nine
hilanthropies.
islands. In a typical year, seventy-three foundation staff members were on as-
would be chartered by
signments in thirty-six foreign countries and territories. Everywhere, the foun-
and program subject to
dation's International Health Board worked cooperatively with the governments
uced to this end in 1910,
of the countries involved.
y hostility toward large
Wickliffe Rose had not gone very far in his work before he began to realize
ich a proposal.
that to extend the great benefits of preventive medicine it would be necessary
finally incorporated by
to create new institutions for the training of specialists to staff the local health
dowment of $35 million
agencies on which depends continuing protection against endemic diseases. The
world."
Rockefeller Foundation, therefore, appropriated more than $6 million to build
: leadership of John D.
and endow the School of Hygiene and Public Health, at the Johns Hopkins
0 address themselves to
University, the first such institution in the world. The RF then spent over $25
n's funds wisely. They
million in developing public health schools and institutions in Ankara, Athens,
public health and med-
Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Calcutta, Cluj, Copenhagen, London, Madrid,
ents that disease is the
Manila, Olso, Prague, Rome, São Paulo, Sofia, Stockholm, Tokyo, Toronto,
Warsaw, and Zagreb, as well as at Harvard University and the University of
First, at the turn of the
Michigan. At the same time, the foundation developed a system of fellowships
elfare everywhere. Even
that brought promising students from all over the world to these schools of public
fty-two years, compared
health.
merican children died in
Medical and public health fellowships were the beginning of what eventually
today. Second, consid-
was to become a global study program, embracing every field of foundation
366 / ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE
activity. Through the years, over thirteen thousand scientists and scholars from
ployed in fifty-nit
most of the world's nations have been given the opportunity for advanced study;
graduates furnishe
twenty-eight have later in their careers been recipients of a Nobel Prize.
programs-fewer
Even more extensive control programs were mounted against malaria and
exclusively on dis
yellow fever, and to a lesser extent against diseases such as typhus, influenza,
Of even more f.
rabies, yaws, bilharziasis, syphilis, tuberculosis, and amoebic dysentery. For
B. Grant to estab
example, in 1915, the Rockefeller Foundation established pilot malaria-control
tryside. This was
projects in Arkansas and Mississippi to find answers to basic questions such as
and social welfare
how to break the chain of transmission from man-to-mosquito-to-man and how
large-scale, integr
to protect populations effectively and economically from infection. The success
The war with J.
of these projects led, in 1919, to the beginning of a coordinated attack in ten
seemingly foreve:
southern states by the U.S. Public Health Service, state boards of health, and
sented the single
the foundation. The campaign was gradually expanded and intensified, until the
malization of rela
final push in the years 1942-1944 virtually eradicated malaria from this country.
RF was asked to r
In 1938, there exploded in Brazil the most severe malaria epidemic ever
work is being do
recorded in this hemisphere. Over one hundred thousand cases, with at least
reproductive phys
fourteen thousand deaths, occurred in the first six months. So widespread was
It became incre
this epidemic that crops went unharvested, and starvation added to the ravages
that there was litt'
of malaria. At the invitation of the Brazilian government, the Rockefeller Foun-
education as a wh
dation brought together a large antimalarial organization to bring the epidemic
from John D. Ro
under control. Operating in the manner of a military campaign, over two thousand
improving the qua
people set themselves the almost unbelievably painstaking task of eliminating
Britain, Canada, I
every single malaria-transmitting mosquito from a twelve-thousand-square-mile
while, the Genera
area. By the end of 1940, Anopheles gambiae could no longer be found in the
gave extensive su
region: the western hemisphere was free from danger.
States, where low
The RF's greatest single public-health effort, however, was in the field of
ham Flexner repc
yellow fever. For centuries, this disease had periodically ravaged many parts of
By the middle
the world with cataclysmic outbreaks against which no protection was possible.
a national and in
As late as 1905, a yellow fever epidemic, which began in New Orleans, caused
from the support
one thousand deaths in the southern states. For over thirty years, starting in
A new division 0
1915, the RF fought this terrible disease, whose complexities proved a challenge
for research into
to laboratory and field-workers alike, with a large staff of scientists in New
diseases, human
York, Africa, and Latin America. Many of them contracted yellow fever; six
tantly, psychiatry
died of it.
The year 1928
The vaccine now used to protect people from yellow fever was eventually
The Rockefeller
developed in 1935 at the Rockefeller Foundation's New York laboratories, from
advancement of
a blood specimen taken in 1927 from a West African native named Asibi. In
and arts, as well
1951, Dr. Max Theiler, a member of the New York laboratories, was awarded
by three other R
a Nobel Prize for this achievement.
orial,* the Gene
An extraordinary chapter in the foundation's history is its work in China. In
The RF thus en
1913, the RF offered to introduce Western medicine to China. Eight years later,
almost exclusive
the Peking Union Medical College (PUMC)-"the most beautiful medical school
In the mid-19:
in the world"-was dedicated. Distinguished medical scientists from the United
in relatively new
States and Europe complemented largely Western-trained Chinese faculties de-
ture, and functio
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE / 367
entists and scholars from
ployed in fifty-nine buildings over twenty-five acres. For twenty years, PUMC
unity for advanced study;
graduates furnished the leadership for China's medical schools and public health
of a Nobel Prize.
programs-fewer than ten entered private practice. Research was focused almost
ited against malaria and
exclusively on disease problems relevant to China.
ich as typhus, influenza,
Of even more far-reaching importance were the pioneering efforts of Dr. John
amoebic dysentery. For
B. Grant to establish community-based health care in China's cities and coun-
hed pilot malaria-control
tryside. This was a successful undertaking that, when joined to the mass literacy
basic questions such as
and social welfare efforts led by Dr. James Yen, evolved into some of the first
osquito-to-man and how
large-scale, integrated, rural development models.
m infection. The success
The war with Japan and the subsequent autocracy of Mao brought to an end,
coordinated attack in ten
seemingly forever, an enormously promising collaboration, one which repre-
ite boards of health, and
sented the single largest investment the RF has ever made. But with the nor-
and intensified, until the
malization of relationships between the United States and China in 1972, the
alaria from this country.
RF was asked to return to China. Today, once again, considerable collaborative
malaria epidemic ever
work is being done, particularly in the fields of the agricultural sciences and
sand cases, with at least
reproductive physiology.
nths. So widespread was
It became increasingly clear to those who guided the Rockefeller Foundation
ion added to the ravages
that there was little promise for lasting progress in public health unless medical
it, the Rockefeller Foun-
education as a whole could be improved. On receipt of an additional $50 million
on to bring the epidemic
from John D. Rockefeller, Sr., in 1919, the RF devoted millions of dollars to
paign, over two thousand
improving the quality of medical teaching in Belgium, France, Germany, Great
king task of eliminating
Britain, Canada, Brazil, Lebanon, the Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia. Mean-
Ive-thousand-square-mile
while, the General Education Board,* another Rockefeller family philanthropy,
o longer be found in the
gave extensive support to the improvement of medical education in the United
States, where low standards of teaching had been revealed by the famous Abra-
ever, was in the field of
ham Flexner report.
ly ravaged many parts of
By the middle of the 1920s, with the quality of medical education increasingly
protection was possible.
a national and international concern, the Rockefeller Foundation turned away
in New Orleans, caused
from the support of teaching and toward the development of new knowledge.
thirty years, starting in
A new division of medical sciences, under Dr. Alan Gregg, gave direct support
:xities proved a challenge
for research into unsolved or unexplored problems in fields such as infectious
taff of scientists in New
diseases, human genetics, the behavioral sciences, endocrinology, and, impor-
tracted yellow fever; six
tantly, psychiatry in the medical school context.
The year 1928 marked the consolidation of several Rockefeller philanthropies.
DW fever was eventually
The Rockefeller Foundation assumed responsibility for programs leading to the
York laboratories, from
advancement of knowledge in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities
native named Asibi. In
and arts, as well as the medical sciences. These had been previously administered
boratories, was awarded
by three other Rockefeller philanthropies: the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Mem-
orial,* the General Education Board, and the International Education Board.
is its work in China. In
The RF thus entered vast new fields of research and scholarship, ending its
China. Eight years later,
almost exclusive concentration on medicine and public health.
beautiful medical school
In the mid-1930s, the Rockefeller Foundation turned to support investigations
cientists from the United
in relatively new and unexplored fields concerned with "the constitution, struc-
ed Chinese faculties de-
ture, and function of living organisms and their component parts." Under the
368 / ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE
guidance of Warren Weaver, almost $100 million was spent over the next twenty
which, in a shorter time
years to support a great variety of projects in the basic life sciences, with the
Mexico.
principal focus on the increasingly productive discipline of molecular biology.
Similarly, in 1955, a S
The work of men such as Linus Pauling, George W. Beadle, George Hevesy,
cooperative food crop im
Ernest O. Lawrence, and George E. Hale was encouraged by grants to their
extended the agricultural
institutions.
government of India. T}
Support for the physical sciences, while lesser in scope, is typified by a $6
the RF, laid the bases
million grant from three Rockefeller philanthropies for the construction of the
productivity-per-acre du
two-hundred-inch Hale telescope on Mount Palomar.
1977, an estimated 30 F
During the 1930s and 1940s, research funds for experimental biology became
Asia was sown to impro
increasingly available elsewhere. The RF, therefore, began to place increased
Unable to meet the nu
emphasis on the application of scientific knowledge then available, especially
the Ford Foundation* de
in the agricultural sciences.
agencies devoted to spec
In 1942, the Mexican government invited the foundation to send staff members
center, the International
to work in a cooperative venture for the improvement of Mexico's basic food
in 1960, operated with fu
crops. Under the leadership of J. George Harrar, an accomplished plant pa-
a global network of thin
thologist who twenty years later was to become president of the Rockefeller
sortium of national and it
Foundation, the work began with those crops basic in the Mexican diet: maize
million for the network'
and wheat. As one project appeared to be on the way to success, additional
The Green Revolution
sections were established-first on potatoes, then on vegetables, sorghum, bar-
probably, together with
ley, and forage and pasture legumes and grasses. The last step was to extend
vision, the foundation's
the work into the animal sciences.
in 1970 with a Nobel P
The pattern of crop improvement began with the collection and study of
still active in Mexico tc
indigenous varieties and with experimentation on introduced types to select
During its first fifteer
superior strains for prompt release to farmers. It continued with a parallel, longer-
most exclusively with
term program of plant breeding to create higher-yielding, disease-resistant strains
better life. But many o
superior to indigenous varieties. Supporting the breeding work, studies in soil
prejudice-do not lend t
fertility and disease and pest control led to knowledge of how farmers could
to yield only to an evol:
most advantageously manage the improved varieties to secure maximum yields.
and testing. It is the goa
As important as the scientific work was the advanced training of many hundreds
complex evolutionary p
of young Mexican scientists, and the intensive development of strong agricultural
In 1928, with the abs
training institutes.
RF acquired a working
The impact of this cooperative program produced dramatic results. Within
nomics, political scien
twenty years, food production doubled as a result of research, advances in seed
relationship to his soci
production, proper use of fertilizers, irrigation of new lands, and improved
largely governed by tra
communications systems. In 1961, the minister of agriculture could announce
were as often as not po
the creation of the National Institute of Agricultural Research, staffed and ad-
were few. A bold beg
ministered by Mexican scientists, to absorb the cooperative program and the
Spelman Rockefeller I
entire experiment station system.
social sciences on a.s
In 1950, two members of the RF staff in Mexico City boarded an airplane
Foundation in a positio
bound for Bogotá, Colombia, taking with them hundreds of packets of wheat
the promotion of syste
lines developed in Mexico. With their experience in the Mexican program, and
ments in areas such
with the advantage of possessing seeds representing previous research, the two
administration.
scientists, later joined by others, started a cooperative program in Colombia
On an increasingly e
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE / 369
pent over the next twenty
which, in a shorter time, has achieved just as outstanding results as the one in
ic life sciences, with the
Mexico.
le of molecular biology.
Similarly, in 1955, a staff member in Colombia went to Chile to begin another
3eadle, George Hevesy,
cooperative food crop improvement project. In 1956, the Rockefeller Foundation
raged by grants to their
extended the agricultural program to Asia in response to an invitation from the
government of India. These "country programs," as they were called within
opt, is typified by a $6
the RF, laid the bases for the so-called Green Revolution, greatly increased
the construction of the
productivity-per-acre due to improved seeds and their proper cultivation. By
1977, an estimated 30 percent of land given to the cultivation of rice in all of
imental biology became
Asia was sown to improved varieties, as was 72 percent of the wheat acreage.
egan to place increased
Unable to meet the number of requests from individual countries, the RF and
en available, especially
the Ford Foundation* developed the concept of international agricultural research
agencies devoted to specific food crops and serving whole regions. The first such
on to send staff members
center, the International Rice Research Institute, was started in the Philippines
of Mexico's basic food
in 1960, operated with funds from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. Today,
accomplished plant pa-
a global network of thirteen such centers is supported by an international con-
dent of the Rockefeller
sortium of national and international agencies that in 1981 raised more than $130
he Mexican diet: maize
million for the network's research activities.
to success, additional
The Green Revolution-agriculture-led development in the Third World-is
getables, sorghum, bar-
probably, together with the work of the RF's former International Health Di-
last step was to extend
vision, the foundation's most substantial achievement, one that was recognized
in 1970 with a Nobel Peace Prize to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, a staff member
ollection and study of
still active in Mexico today.
oduced types to select
During its first fifteen years, the Rockefeller Foundation concerned itself al-
1 with a parallel, longer-
most exclusively with medicine and the exact sciences as a means toward a
disease-resistant strains
better life. But many of humanity's predicaments-such as war, poverty, and
g work, studies in soil
prejudice-do not lend themselves to clear-cut scientific solutions; they are likely
of how farmers could
to yield only to an evolutionary process of analysis, systematization, education,
cure maximum yields.
and testing. It is the goal of the social sciences to illuminate and help direct this
ining of many hundreds
complex evolutionary process.
nt of strong agricultural
In 1928, with the absorption of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, the
RF acquired a working interest in scholarly investigations-principally in eco-
amatic results. Within
nomics, political science, and sociology-aimed at the clarification of man's
arch, advances in seed
relationship to his social environment. At that time, the social sciences were
lands, and improved
largely governed by tradition and chance, university social science departments
ulture could announce
were as often as not poorly developed, and competent men in the social sciences
search, staffed and ad-
were few. A bold beginning had been made by Beardsley Ruml, the Laura
tive program and the
Spelman Rockefeller Memorial's young and imaginative director, to put the
social sciences on a sounder scientific footing. His work left the Rockefeller
y boarded an airplane
Foundation in a position to carry forward a well-articulated program based on
S of packets of wheat
the promotion of systematic research and aimed at achieving concrete improve-
Mexican program, and
ments in areas such as international relations, economics, and public
!ous research, the two
administration.
program in Colombia
On an increasingly expansive front, the Rockefeller Foundation helped develop
370 / ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE
strong university research centers, here and abroad, to create fundamental knowl-
including the Stra
edge upon which good teaching could rest. Universities given such encourage-
speare Festival, ii
ment include Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Texas, Geneva,
and the Lincoln (
Paris, and Stockholm, among many others. Through various research institutes,
the foundation's
the RF supported systematic inquiries into economic, political, and social prob-
and the dance.
lems where little empirical knowledge was available. Through the award of
In the early 19
fellowships, the foundation increased the number of trained social scientists.
on how best to di
Where the will existed, it sought to bring together scholars from several disci-
by the foundation
plines for joint studies on some of the concrete problems of the times. For
of government ai
example, the Great Depression brought emphasis to studies of economic stabi-
casion of its fifti-
lization. International relations became an important interest in the 1930s as the
the RF's financia
world scene became increasingly complex and threatening.
of the day, on fiv
After World War II, as scores of countries gained independence, the foundation
for maximum et
supported considerable work in the social sciences at universities in such nations
conquest of hung
to underpin their hopes for rapid growth grounded on economic, educational,
learning in the lt
and administrative techniques that have grown out of the social sciences over
in the United Sta
the past fifty years.
Under the lea
For more than fifty years, the Rockefeller Foundation has supported scholarly
ically successful
and creative work in the humanities and the arts. At first, the work of the
of the RF, consi
foundation followed lines established by the General Education Board-support
decades in the ar
for archaeology, bibliography, biography, and language study. But, in 1934, a
agriculture natur:
trustee committee urged a shift away from supporting the preservation of the
insistence on it
past in favor of interpreting the present.
Americans.
In literature, the foundation began by encouraging talented young writers, to
Following its I
provide a measure of time and freedom for further creative work. Awards were
in agriculture, tl
made to gifted writers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India,
ularly economics
Nigeria, Japan, and the Philippines. Latin American literature, too, rarely avail-
America, with tl
able in translation, received support through the translation and publication of
men and women
seventy-five major works.
The methodolog
In history, the foundation gave considerable impetus and assistance to defin-
and then Educat
itive collections of the papers of great American statesmen, among them Lincoln,
to a university,
Madison, Hamilton, Jay, and Wilson. Other approaches that received a great
universities, wl
deal of attention were the historical illumination of our own century and historical
younger faculty
studies of the non-Western world.
regarded univer
Beginning in the 1930s, the RF intensively supported the effective teaching
the RF, meanv
of major modern languages in America. To extend knowledge and education of
objective was f
other contemporary cultures, the foundation helped develop centers at leading
job. This was a
American and foreign academic institutions for the study, in depth, of foreign
trustees were a
history, culture, and institutions.
terms of mone
Among the arts, drama is the field in which the foundation has been active
undertaken by 1
over the longest period. In the 1930s and 1940s, the foundation helped advance
During those
community and university drama in the United States through new plays, ex-
supporting priv
perimental productions, and the training of playwrights, directors, and actors.
of extremely r:
Foundation grants helped support or establish a variety of lively theatre groups,
of culturally ac
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE / 371
create fundamental knowl-
including the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, in Ontario; the American Shake-
ties given such encourage-
speare Festival, in Stratford, Connecticut; the Arena Stage, in Washington, D.C.;
anderbilt, Texas, Geneva,
and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, in New York City. In the 1950s,
various research institutes,
the foundation's interest in the performing arts was expanded to include music
political, and social prob-
and the dance.
le Through the award of
In the early 1960s, considerable discussion took place among the RF's trustees
of trained social scientists.
on how best to draw upon the lessons of the past in a world where pioneer effort
cholars from several disci-
by the foundation has been absorbed, on a vastly increasing scale, by programs
oblems of the times. For
of government and international organizations. Therefore, in 1963, on the oc-
studies of economic stabi-
casion of its fiftieth anniversary, the Rockefeller foundation's trustees focused
interest in the 1930s as the
the RF's financial and professional resources, still substantial by the standards
ening.
of the day, on five programs or areas in which several disciplines were associated
dependence, the foundation
for maximum effectiveness. The five areas defined by the trustees were the
iniversities in such nations
conquest of hunger, the populations problem, strengthening emerging centers of
on economic, educational,
learning in the less-developed world, moving toward equal opportunity for all
of the social sciences over
in the United States, and aiding our cultural development.
Under the leadership of Dr. J. George Harrar, who had directed the dramat-
on has supported scholarly
ically successful agricultural programs and had recently been elected president
At first, the work of the
of the RF, considerable work of lasting significance was done over the next two
Education Board-support
decades in the areas defined by the trustees. Harrar's interest in improving world
age study. But, in 1934, a
agriculture naturally remained unabated, but equally decisive was his unflagging
ng the preservation of the
insistence on improving educational and economic opportunities for black
Americans.
talented young writers, to
Following its long interest in non-Western cultures, the RF brought its expertise
eative work. Awards were
in agriculture, the medical and natural sciences, and the social sciences (partic-
Kingdom, Canada, India,
ularly economics) to bear on strengthening universities in Africa, Asia, and Latin
iterature, too, rarely avail-
America, with the objective of enabling these institutions to furnish well-trained
slation and publication of
men and women to participate in the development of their countries and regions.
The methodology of this program, successively called University Development
as and assistance to defin-
and then Education for Development, consisted of assigning key foundation staff
nen, among them Lincoln,
to a university, substantially augmented by visiting professors mostly from U.S.
ches that received a great
universities, who together fleshed out academic departments while promising
own century and historical
younger faculty members received additional training as RF fellows in highly
regarded universities before returning to their teaching positions. Grants from
ted the effective teaching
the RF, meanwhile, provided improved teaching and research facilities. The
owledge and education of
objective was for RF and other expatriate faculty to work themselves out of a
evelop centers at leading
job. This was accomplished to a highly satisfactory degree, so much so that the
udy, in depth, of foreign
trustees were able to phase out this program, the final step taken in 1983. In
terms of money spent and staff deployed, it remains the largest program ever
undation has been active
undertaken by the RF.
oundation helped advance
During those same years, the population program played an active role in
through new plays, ex-
supporting private and official efforts to create awareness of the consequences
ts, directors, and actors.
of extremely rapid rates of increase, and to stimulate research and availability
of lively theatre groups,
of culturally acceptable means of family planning.
372 / ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, THE
At home, the Rockefeller Foundation became one of the most consistent
ger (1967); William GI
advocates and supporters of equality of opportunity for blacks, at first in the
An American Transpla.
field of higher education, later in training black administrators for selected public
College (1980). See a
school systems with largely black student populations. In addition, its arts pro-
uously since 1914.
gram expanded vigorously into the support of creative individuals-particularly
playwrights, choreographers, and video artists-at a time when the performing
arts captured the interest and imagination of the American public as never before.
ROCKEFELLER M
Realism dictates that the Rockefeller Foundation today must take a more
modest view of its potential for influencing progress. The soaring costs of inflation
ROSENWALD FUN
and relatively static capital funds can only diminish the foundation's grant-
making ability. As for its well-known operational programs, it is unthinkable
ROWLAND FOUND
today to maintain, as the foundation did in 1970, a field staff of 143 highly
win H. Land and Hele
experienced professionals, distributed over 15 nations. It is painful that at a time
Rowland Foundation 1
when the private initiative is stressed emphatically that the RF's responses, as
through his invention
those of other private organizations, must necessarily be circumscribed.
eries. The foundation
But despite adverse circumstances common to all private, nonprofit organi-
Polaroid Corporation.
zations, the RF is determined, in the words of its president, to "sustain its global
Initially, the founda
vision."
to about $34 million,
The foundation, with 1981 assets of about $883 million, is organized into six
foundation, with ann
programs staffed by specialists in fields relevant to program interests. Richard
$1.5 million, has devo
W. Lyman, formerly president of Stanford University, is the foundation's chief
of higher and second
executive officer; he is assisted by three vice-presidents. A board of twenty-
remainder devoted to
three trustees of widely varying experiences passes on the grant proposals made
In 1979, the Rowla
to them by program officers at regular meetings. The six programs and their
institute in Cambrid:
1981 expenditures are: Arts, Humanities, and Contemporary Values-$6.4 mil-
foundation would tra
lion; Conquest of Hunger-$7.9 million; Education for Development-$5.2 mil-
Thus, it appears that
lion (program being phased out); Equal Opportunity-$4.9 million; International
foundation support.
Relations-$3.7 million; Population and Health-$11 million. Each program's
The Rowland Fou
specific interests are detailed in the annual report, which is available on request.
with Edwin H. Land
An overview of the program areas makes clear the RF's continuing commit-
two other members (
ment to assist in the economic and social development of the world's poorer
foundation is Post O
countries, with a renewed interest in long-neglected tropical diseases that afflict
Almost the only a
hundreds of millions of people. At home, its long-standing interest in helping
the public are the an
to advance the educational and economic opportunities of blacks has not flagged
Service, and the var
and now extends to Hispanics and other minority-group members. And a new
Reports, published
program in international relations seeks to enhance the global capacity to prevent
from 11% to 7.7%,
conflict between nations that would render immaterial all other human effort.
The headquarters offices of the Rockefeller Foundation are located at 1133
RUBINSTEIN FO
Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10036. Rockefeller Foundation
archival material is located and may be consulted, upon inquiry, at the Rockefeller
RUSSELL SAGE
Archive Center, Hillcrest, Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, New York 10591.
1907, the Russell'S
For further information, see the RF's standard history, now outdated, by
dation in the Unite
Raymond B. Fosdick, The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation (1952); E. C.
social research anc
Stakman, Richard Bradfield, and Paul C. Mangelsdorf, Campaigns Against Hun-
organization move,
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION / 373
e of the most consistent
ger (1967); William Greer, The Plague Killers (1969); and Mary Brown Bullock,
for blacks, at first in the
An American Transplant: The Rockefeller Foundation and Peking Union Medical
strators for selected public
College (1980). See also Annual Reports of the foundation, published contin-
In addition, its arts pro-
uously since 1914.
individuals-particularly
HENRY ROMNEY
ime when the performing
an,public as never before.
ROCKEFELLER MEMORIAL. See Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial.
today must take a more
soaring costs of inflation
ROSENWALD FUND. See Julius Rosenwald Fund.
the foundation's grant-
grams, it is unthinkable
ROWLAND FOUNDATION, INC. Incorporated in Delaware in 1960 by Ed-
field staff of 143 highly
win H. Land and Helen M. Land, as Edwin H. Land-Helen M. Land, Inc., the
It is painful that at a time
Rowland Foundation took its present name in 1972. Edwin Land made a fortune
t the RF's responses, as
through his invention of the Polaroid-Land camera and other scientific discov-
e circumscribed.
eries. The foundation has been financed through grants of cash or stock in Land's
rivate, nonprofit organi-
Polaroid Corporation.
ent, to "sustain its global
Initially, the foundation was relatively small, but, in the 1970s, its assets grew
to about $34 million, which is approximately what its corpus was in 1980. The
on, is organized into six
foundation, with annual grants in recent years ranging from $0.75 million to
gram interests. Richard
$1.5 million, has devoted well over 50 percent of its annual giving for the support
is the foundation's chief
of higher and secondary education, hospitals, and medical research, with the
its. A board of twenty-
remainder devoted to the support of arts, culture, and social welfare programs.
he grant proposals made
In 1979, the Rowland Foundation established a scientific laboratory or research
six programs and their
institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A 1981 press account stated that the
rary Values-$6.4 mil-
foundation would transfer millions of dollars in its assets to this new institute.
Development-$5.2 mil-
Thus, it appears that the institute will become the major beneficiary of future
.9 million; International
foundation support.
million. Each program's
The Rowland Foundation is governed by a five-member board of trustees,
is available on request.
with Edwin H. Land serving as president, Helen M. Land as vice-president, and
F's continuing commit-
two other members of the Land family on the board. The mailing address of the
of the world's poorer
foundation is Post Office Box 13, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
ical diseases that afflict
Almost the only additional information on this foundation readily available to
ling interest in helping
the public are the annual reports and returns filed by it with the Internal Revenue
blacks has not flagged
Service, and the various Foundation Center publications. See, however, Annual
members. And a new
Reports, published since 1979, and an article "Polaroid's Land To Cut Holdings
bal capacity to prevent
from 11% to 7.7%," Wall Street Journal (July 22, 1981), p. 11.
I other human effort.
on are located at 1133
RUBINSTEIN FOUNDATION. See Helena Rubinstein Foundation, Inc.
Rockefeller Foundation
uiry, at the Rockefeller
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION. Established by Margaret Olivia Sage in
wn, New York 10591.
1907, the Russell Sage Foundation is probably the oldest general-purpose foun-
ry, now outdated, by
dation in the United States. The foundation's first leaders developed its initial
ridation (1952); E. C.
social research and social welfare policy programs out of the private charity
mpaigns Against Hun-
organization movement. They pursued those programs with remarkable con-
Page 28
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Corporation of America, a designer and engineer of nuclear reactors
for electric power, propulsion and research; Itek Corporation, a
producer of information handling and duplicating equipment; GCA
Corporation, a producer of scientific instrumentation; Scantlin
Electronics, Inc., developer and producer of electronic devices for
disseminating stock quotations and financial data; and Thermo
Electron Corporation, designer and producer of thermionic energy
devices, small steam engines and compact combustion systems.
Starting in the early 1960's, investments have been
directed toward companies engaged in advanced technologies such as
composite materials, lasers and high temperature chemistry, as well
as those involved in the computer and data processing fields.
Among these investments were: Coherent Radiation Laboratories,
designer and producer of lasers for use in industrial applications;
Plasmachem, Inc., developer of processes in the field of high
temperature chemistry; Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation,
designer and producer of computer graphic systems; Intel
Corporation, developer and manufacturer of high speed semiconductor
computer memory systems; and Apple Computer.
Many of the companies subsequently were purchased by or
merged into other corporations.
Fry
por is wn partnership formal
Vennock instructions
in her the 19605 one nutz no
to
(more)
apple created
his
philophyle This environment.
Page 8
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
Conservation
Laurance S. Rockefeller's interest in conservation came
early. Summers spent on Mt. Desert Island in Maine, visits to the
Yellowstone country and the influence of his father and leading
conservationists added lasting elements to a boy's love of the out-
of-doors and fascination with nature. In addition to John D.
Rockefeller, Jr., his principal tutors were the late Horace M.
Albright, first superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and
later National Park Service Director, and the late Fairfield
Osborn, president of the New York Zoological Society.
Mr. Rockefeller was associated in many conservation
projects with his father, as, to use his own words, an apprentice.
From Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., and the dedicated and able men
associated with him, Laurance Rockefeller absorbed an education in
nature -- and in how to initiate, organize and administer to get
things done in conservation and to make the benefits of such work
available to the public. And he learned to look upon the outdoors
as a natural, essential ingredient in the full development of the
individual.
Perhaps the most important early lesson learned from
these teachers concerned the distinction between conservation of
natural areas for use by people and preservation. He has been
emphatic in declaring himself for conservation and use, declaring
that outdoor resources are primarily important as the setting in
(more)
Page 9
LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER
which people can develop and strengthen their own resources.
Mr. Rockefeller has been an important influence in the
surge of public interest concerning the environment in recent
years. In addition to his federal and state activities, he has
given major emphasis "to bringing elements of the wilderness, of
the outdoors, to the city" in the programs of private conservation
organizations. He has emphasized the relation between the avail-
ability of the outdoors for recreation and the constructive use of
leisure time.
Mr. Rockefeller has been instrumental in establishing or
supporting several conservation/environmental organizations. Among
these is the American Conservation Association, Inc. ACA was
established in 1958 by Mr. Rockefeller as a philanthropy to
function as a conservation service agency, assisting the work of
other agencies -- both private and governmental -- and initiating
projects of its own. It has been part of the movement which helped
to focus public attention on the quality of the American
environment.
Among other conservation organizations in which he has
taken an active role are the New York Zoological Society, of which
he is now honorary chairman; American Committee for International
Wildlife Protection; Resources for the Future, Inc.; and the
National Park Foundation. With Fairfield Osborn, head of the New
York Zoological Society, he helped to organize The Conservation
(more)
SE
05:18 FROM
TO
912024566218 P.01
FAX
91 SEP 12
PLEASE DELIVER THE FOLLOWING TO:
Machile nex
The White House
FROM:
nash Castro
30 Rockefeller Plaza, Room 5600
New York, NY 10112
Tel. 212-649-5600
Fax. 212-649-5939
TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES
31
(INCLUDING COVER SHEET)
X
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 27, 1991
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT PRESENTATION OF CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL
TO LAURENCE ROCKEFELLER
The Roosevelt Room
11:15 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, a thousand apologies for keeping
you waiting. One of Pickle's colleagues and Jay's colleagues up
there. Good to see you, sir.
Well, please be seated and welcome all, and again,
apologies for keeping such a distinguished group waiting. But let me
just salute our distinguished visitors. We have with us a member of
our Cabinet Secretary Lujan; Bill Reilly; Senator Rockefeller; and
Jake Pickle, Congressman; and all of you.
But today we gather to bestow a rare honor on a splendid
American. Fewer than a 100 times in our nation's history has the
Congress ordered a unique gold medal struck to honor one of our
citizens. This is the first time America presents a Congressional
Gold Medal to recognize a leader in natural resources conservation
and historic preservation.
We honor a loving husband, father and grandfather. We
honor a quiet, gentle man whose life and work sum up a century of
American civic virtue.
Laurance Rockefeller, as everyone here knows, including
me, shies away from the limelight. Though his modesty ennobles him,
I regret that young Americans don't yet know as much as they should
about him. As our young people learn more about Laurance
Rockefeller's life and example, they will feel the excitement of
seeing a hidden national treasure come to light.
From his earliest years, he's combined enthusiasm for
conserving our heritage with brilliant entrepreneurial talents. His
imagination and steadfast effort have transformed some technological
commonplaces of our lives. For Laurance Rockefeller is this
America's century's foremost trailblazer in the venture capital
business.
At the dawn of commercial aviation, he invested the seed
money that turned Captain Eddie Rickenbacker's dream into a
pioneering passenger airline. And then a young engineer in St. Louis
named James McDonnell had an idea for a jet fighter with an air-
cooled engine. Mr. Rockefeller provided "Mr. Mac" with venture
capital that grew into one of the world's first and greatest
aerospace corporations.
Even our youngest generation will recognize a more
recent triumph of Laurance's venture capital philosophy. Not many
years ago, his partnership helped discover and launch a young dreamer
with an offbeat name for a personal computer. I refer, of course, to
Apple's founder, Steve Jobs, one of the heroes of young American
enterprise.
MORT
- 2 -
If anything surpasses his love for innovation, it is his
passion for conserving priceless national treasures and historic
legacies of our civilization. As a policy leader and philanthropist,
Laurance Rockefeller has enabled millions of Americans to enjoy the
beauty of the Virgin Islands National Park, the Grand Tetons of
Wyoming and the Palisades Interstate Park System.
He also has labored to make our city parks and buildings
and boulevards a special kind of "great outdoors." He's done
tremendous work for the environmental quality of New York City,
notably in his efforts for Central Park, the Bronx Zoo, the New York
Aquarium.
And I have a personal reason for gratitude to him.
When I first came to Washington as a freshman congressman in the
'60's, our great capital city suffered from a certain air of neglect
in this regard. And that was when he, Laurance Rockefeller, was
joining our gracious First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, in efforts to
beautify our Nation's Capital.
Over the years since then, it's been my pleasure to
witness firsthand their magnificent work in making Washington truly a
beautiful world capital. In all of his conservation efforts,
Laurance Rockefeller has been emphatic in believing that our natural
resources are for both conservation and use; they're the setting in
which people can develop and strengthen their own humanity.
Completing the expansive scope of his work is the
compassion and generosity that he's shown over many years as a board
member and a benefactor of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Victory over once-deadly forms of cancer owe much to his selfless
philanthropy.
so, sir, on behalf of Congress -- normally I don't speak
for Congress -- (laughter) -- but on behalf of Congress -- I'm
permitted to do that in this regard -- I present you this medal
because your life and work do give honor to America. And as long as
this piece of gold glistens, may grateful Americans remember how you
devoted mind and soul to labors of love for our great country.
Congratulations, sir. (Applause.)
END
11:20 A.M. EDT