David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915)
The life cycle 124875
Important years of life
1933 7
1940 5
1945 1
1946 2
1948 4
1952 8
1960 7
1967 5
1972 1
1973 2
1975 4
1979 8
1987 7
1994 5
1999 1
2000 2
2002 4
2006 8
2014 7
March 20, 2017 = 2040 = 6
wiki information
Education A.B. in 1936 & Ph.D. in 1940
Years active 1940–2017
Spouse(s) Margaret McGrath (m. 1940–1996; her death)
The Kykuit section of the Rockefeller family compound is the location of The Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) – set up by David and his four brothers in 1940 – which was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Rockefeller enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered Officer Candidate School in 1943; he was ultimately promoted to Captain in 1945.
In 1946, Rockefeller joined the staff of the longtime family-associated Chase National Bank
Eileen Rockefeller (born 1952) – venture philanthropist; Founding Chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, established in New York City in 2002.
Rockefeller started as an assistant manager in the foreign department. There he financed international trade in a number of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and metals. This position also maintained relationships with more than 1,000 correspondent banks throughout the world. He served in other positions and became president in 1960 Rockefeller ensured that selected members of the fourth generation, known generically as
the cousins, became directly involved in the family’s institutions. This involved inviting them to be more active in the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the principal foundation established in 1940 by the five brothers and their one sister. The extended
family also became involved in their own philanthropic organization, formed in 1967 and primarily established by third-generation members, called the Rockefeller Family Fund.
During his term as CEO, Chase spread internationally and became a central component of the world’s financial system due to its global network of correspondent banks, the largest in the world. In 1973, Chase established the first branch of an American bank in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. That year Rockefeller traveled to China, resulting in his bank becoming the National Bank of China’s first correspondent bank in the U.S
Displeased with the refusal of Bilderberg Group meetings to include Japan, Rockefeller helped found the Trilateral Commission in July 1973
Following the deaths of his brothers, Winthrop (1973), John III (1978), Nelson (1979), and Laurance (2004), David became sole head of the family (with the important involvement
of his elder son, David Jr.).
He was faulted for spending excessive amounts of time abroad, and during his tenure as CEO the bank had more troubled loans than any other major bank. Chase owned more New York City securities in the mid-1970s, when the city was nearing bankruptcy. A scandal erupted in 1974 when an audit found that losses from bond trading had been understated, and in 1975 the bank was branded a “problem bank” by the Federal Reserve
In November 1979, while chairman of the Chase Bank, Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with John J. McCloy and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the United States Department of State to admit the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for hospital treatment for lymphoma. This action directly precipitated what is known as the
Iran hostage crisis and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from The New York Times) for the first time in his public life.
In 1979, he formed the Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit membership organization of New York businessmen
In 1992, at a Council sponsored forum, Rockefeller proposed a “Western Hemisphere free trade area”, which subsequently became the Free Trade Area of the Americas in a Miami summit in 1994.
In 2000, Rockefeller presided over the final sale of Rockefeller Center to Tishman Speyer Properties, along with the Crown family of Chicago, which ended the more than 70 years of direct family financial association with Rockefeller Center.
Rockefeller was criticized for befriending foreign autocrats to expand Chase interests in their countries. The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller
“spent his life in the club of the ruling class and was loyal to members of the club, no matter what they did.”
He published Memoirs in 2002, the only time a member of the Rockefeller family has written an autobiography
In 2006 he teamed up with former Goldman Sachs executives and others to form a fund-raising group based in Washington, Republicans Who Care, that supported moderate Republican candidates over more ideological contenders
In 2006, he pledged $225 million to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund upon his death, the largest gift in the Fund’s history. The money will be used to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, to support projects that improve access to health care, conduct research on international finance and trade, fight poverty, and support sustainable development, as well as to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations.