Oldest billionaire enjoyed life of giving
David Rockefeller Businessman and philanthropist BORN JUNE 12, 1915 - DIED MARCH 20, 2017 AGED 101
THE world’s oldest billionaire David Rockefeller grew up with amazing wealth and privilege. Yet as the grandson of the Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller and the youngest of six children born to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. he was taught that with great wealth comes great responsibility.
Despite spending his entire professional career in the corporate world, rising to chief executive officer of Chase Manhattan Corporation, it was his role as philanthropist that gave him the most satisfaction in life.
Among his many generous donations was the $225million he bequeathed to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 2006, which he and his brothers established in 1940 to promote social change worldwide.
The year before, he donated $100million each to two New York institutions: the Museum of Modern Art, which was co-founded by his mother, Abigail, and Rockefeller University, a medical-research school started by his grandfather.
In 2008 he gave $100million to Harvard University and on his 100th birthday he gave 1,000 acres of land next to a national park to the state of Maine. Asked if he found his name a burden Rockefeller, who had a personal fortune of $3billion, admitted: “There’s no question that having financial resources, which, thanks to my parents, I learned to use with some restraint and discretion, is a big advantage.”
Born in New York, he attended the experimental Lincoln School of Columbia University’s Teachers College in Manhattan and graduated from Harvard College in 1936. Four years later he received a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, which his family had founded. His first job entailed drafting replies to letters sent to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for $1 a year.
He worked his way up through various departments at Chase Bank before becoming chairman in 1961 and chief executive officer eight years later. He retired in 1981 aged 65 after a 35-year career.
He had advised every American president since Eisenhower and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998.
Rockefeller died of congestive heart failure and is survived by five of his children. His wife Margaret and son Richard predeceased him.