Zainab Asif
The Rockefeller family is one of America’s richest and most well known families and their patriarch David Rockefeller was responsible for a lot of the power and riches controlled by the family. But this famous philanthropist is no more. He died on Monday morning at the age of 101. He died in his sleep due to congestive heart failure. The news of his death was sent in a statement emailed to Bloomberg by a spokesperson for the family.
He was born on June 12, 1915 and was a grandson of America’s first billionaire John D. Rockefeller. David Rockefeller was a shrewd businessman and his business acumen could be seen in the changes he wrought on the Chase Bank in Manhattan. Even though the family only won 5% of the bank’s shares, the chase bank was often called the Rockefeller Bank because David Rockefeller as chairman and CEO of the bank took it to the international market and established it there. He was a Republican and an advocate for America’s economic interests in the global scene. Foreign nations received him with the same honors accorded to chief of states.
He was also an avid collector of art, collecting over 15,000 pieces, some of which quite well known masterpieces. He grew up in splendor and comfort but that only increased his sense of obligation. He was a philanthropist the scale of whose philanthropy was quite mind boggling. David founded the Rockefeller Family Fund in 1967with the aim of supplying funding, grants and strategic support for groups advocating for environmental protection, women’s economic rights and business and government accountability. As he aged, his philanthropy grew in scope as well; according to Reuters, he has donated nearly $2 billion to charity and education and art groups. On his 100th birthday he donated 1,000 acres of land near Acadia National Park to a public preservation charity.
“I think we were brought up both in what was said, but more importantly what was done by members of the family, to feel that we were exceptionally fortunate in having resources and opportunities that many people don’t, and that with opportunity goes responsibility,” David Rockefeller told NewsHour in 2002.
In recognition of his charity work, he was awarded America’s highest civilian honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton then president in the year 1998. “Rockefeller is a name that resonates throughout American history. It means not only private success and wealth, but also an abiding sense of public responsibility,” Clinton said. “David Rockefeller is a gentleman, a statesman, a scholar, and most important, a genuine humanitarian of the likes our nation has rarely seen,” the president added.
Damodar Kalyan
