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David Rockefeller
1915–2017 · 102 years Tier II
A dollar-a-year clerk for La Guardia, then 35 years at Chase
He grew up at 10 West 54th Street in a eight-story house, the tallest private residence New York had then built, the youngest of six children and a grandson of the man who made Standard Oil. His schooling was experimental on purpose: the Lincoln School up in Harlem, an institution his family's own General Education Board had helped fund. Harvard came next, cum laude in 1936, with a stint editing the Crimson, then a year at the London School of Economics studying under Friedrich Hayek, then a doctorate in economics from Chicago in 1940. He spent 18 months after that as a dollar-a-year secretary to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, working out of the empty deputy mayor's office, and the war took him into Army intelligence in North Africa and France.
He joined Chase National in 1946 as an assistant manager in the foreign department, financing trade in coffee, sugar and metals, and worked his way to president in 1960 and to chairman and chief executive from 1969 to 1980. He built the largest network of correspondent banks in the world. Chase opened the first American bank branch in Moscow in 1973, and after his trip to China that year it became the first US correspondent of the Bank of China. A 1979 study of bank control over American corporations put Chase at the top of the list. Alongside the bank he joined the Council on Foreign Relations as a director in 1949 and chaired it from 1970 to 1985, started the Council of the Americas in 1965, and helped found the Trilateral Commission in 1973.
The banker was faulted at the bank. He spent heavily on travel abroad while Chase carried more troubled loans than any major American bank, an audit in 1974 found bond-trading losses had been understated, and in 1975 the Federal Reserve labeled Chase a problem bank. Earnings fell 36 percent from 1974 to 1976 while rivals gained. In November 1979 he pressed Jimmy Carter, with Henry Kissinger and John J. McCloy, to admit the Shah of Iran for cancer treatment, and the hostage crisis followed within days. David Brooks wrote in 2002 that Rockefeller spent his life in the club of the ruling class and stayed loyal to its members whatever they did, listing deals with oil-rich dictators, Soviet party bosses and Chinese officials of the Cultural Revolution. McCloy said he would be remembered as a personality, not a great banker.
He died in his sleep of congestive heart failure at Pocantico Hills on March 20, 2017, at 101, the last of the five brothers by 13 years. Forbes put the estate at 3.3 billion dollars. His will directed more than 700 million to nonprofits, the largest share seeding the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, and his art collection went to auction in the spring of 2018 for the benefit of Rockefeller University, Harvard, the Museum of Modern Art and others. The conspiracy literature outlived him. He had answered it himself in his memoirs: if the charge is conspiring to build a more integrated global structure, he wrote, then he stood guilty and was proud of it.
Lifespan
David Rockefeller's life against the full span of the corpus.
Notable works
-
International Executive Service Corps
company
Founded with Sol Linowitz to push private enterprise in developing countries 1964 -
Council of the Americas
company
Formed with other businessmen to press economic integration in the hemisphere 1965 -
Trilateral Commission
company
Founded in July 1973 after Bilderberg refused to include Japan 1973 -
Partnership for New York City
company
A membership body of New York business leaders 1979 -
Memoirs
book
The only autobiography any Rockefeller has written 2002 -
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture
company
Built with his daughter Peggy on the family land, over relatives' objections 2004
Life in brief
with age at each point- 1940 aged ~25 Takes a doctorate in economics at the University of Chicago He had studied under Friedrich Hayek at the LSE first.
- 1940 aged ~25 Marries Margaret McGrath, called Peggy They had six children. She died in 1996.
- 1943 aged ~28 Enters Officer Candidate School and goes into Army intelligence He served in North Africa and France and was an assistant attache in Paris.
- 1946 aged ~31 Joins Chase National Bank, where his uncle is chairman He started as an assistant manager in the foreign department.
- 1969 aged ~54 Becomes chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan
- 1973 aged ~58 Opens the first American bank branch in Moscow and travels to China Chase became the first US correspondent bank of the Bank of China.
- 1975 aged ~60 The Federal Reserve brands Chase a problem bank Earnings fell 36 percent from 1974 to 1976 while rivals rose.
- November 1979 aged 64 Persuades Carter to admit the Shah of Iran for treatment The Iran hostage crisis followed, and the scrutiny with it.
- March 20, 2017 aged 101 Dies in his sleep at Pocantico Hills at 101 Congestive heart failure. He had been the family's oldest living member since 2004.
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