John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

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John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1915)

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. , (born January 29, 1874 in Cleveland , Ohio , † May 11, 1960 in Tucson , Arizona ) was a member of the famous American Rockefeller family . He is known as a philanthropist .

biography

As the fifth child, he was the only son of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. , founder of Standard Oil and one of the richest people of his time. He attended the Browning School in New York and then studied sociology and economics at Brown University until 1894 . Then he went to Germany and studied at Heidelberg University . For a short time he worked in his father's company. In 1914, in the wake of the Ludlow massacre, he became a negative symbol for the exploitation of miners in the Colorado coal fields . He hired the marketing specialist Ivy Leeand invested large sums in improving its image. During the Great Depression, he financed the construction of the Rockefeller Center and became one of the largest real estate owners in New York. He became a major shareholder in Chase National Bank when the bank acquired his Equitable Trust company.

On October 9, 1901, he married Abigail Greene Aldrich (1874-1948), called "Abby", daughter of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island . The couple had six children, a daughter and five sons:

Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller later became governors . Nelson then became Vice President of the United States under Gerald Ford .

Abby died on April 5, 1948. On August 15, 1951, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. married concert pianist Martha Baird Allen, the widow of a fellow student at Brown University.

Charitable and social engagement

He is best known for his charitable works, after his father founded Rockefeller University in 1901 (at that time as the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research ) and the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913 . He also supported the restoration of colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and donated $ 8.5 million to the United Nations to purchase the property for its headquarters in New York City.

A staunch advocate of the ecumenical movement , he donated considerable sums to Protestant and Baptist institutions, including the Federal Council of Churches , Union Theological Seminary , the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and Riverside Church .

In 1924 Rockefeller was accepted as a foreign member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts . Since 1931 he was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society .

He had a keen interest in conservation and bought land for several American national parks , including Grand Teton National Park , Acadia National Park , Great Smoky Mountains National Park , Yosemite National Park, and Shenandoah National Park . In 1972, he was posthumously honored by naming the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway between Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park after him. The Rockefeller Mountains and the Rockefeller Plateau in Antarctica also bear his name.

Web links

Commons : John D. Rockefeller, Jr.  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in the Munzinger Archive , accessed on December 22, 2018 ( beginning of article freely available)
  2. ^ Member History: John D. Rockefeller. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 22, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Rockefeller, John D. Jr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rockefeller, John Davison Junior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American philanthropist
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio , United States
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1960
Place of death Tucson , Arizona , United States