THE ROCKEFELLERS

Rockefeller Jr.’s second son, Nelson, born in 1908. With his elder brother superintending the family’s cultural power, he turned his attention to the arena of political power. His first major sphere of activity was political propaganda. Before he was 30, he became a director of the Creole Petroleum Company, the subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey

Though he was awarded the Order of the Auspicious Star of China when he was director of United China Relief (for the Nationalists), he subsequently counseled the State Department (in 1949) on another form of population control for Communist China, suggesting that «trade with China… should be limited.

helped create the Asia Society. He won such honors in Asia as Grand Cordon Order of the Rising sun (in Japan), president of the Japan Society; chairman of the Asian Society; Most Noble Order of the Crown (in Thailand); Order of the Thousand Elephants and White Parasol (in Laos). The Population Council, which he sponsored, had a staff of some 250 doctors,

served in the military government that occupied Japan after the Second World War and as a consultant to the U.S. Peace Set

After graduating from Princeton in 1929, He traveled by ship to Japan immediately the first of sixteen such trips and concentrated his energy on Asia. His mission became to provide the funds and support to assist Asian nations to control their populations.

John’, as he was called, chose like his father to establish himself in philanthropies rather than business.

eldest son. John Davidson Rockefeller III, was born in 1906 at a time when his illustrious grandfather was still hiding out from government investigators.

assiduously avoided politics, though he married Abby Aldrich, daughter of Senator Winthrop Aldrich, the most important Republican leader of his time. His only important business venture, according to his biographer, was the erection of Rockefeller Center, a colossal office building complex on Fifth Avenue in the heart of New York City which he bravely built at the height of the depression in the 1930s.

his only child John Jr did not inherit full control over the fortune — and foundations until he was 63 and nearly retired.

Rockefeller, who had wanted to live until 100, died in his sleep from sclerotic myocarditis at the age of 97 at The Casements, his Winter home, in Florida. None of his immediate family was with him at the end. A special car was sent to Florida to bring back his body for a funeral at Pocantico Hill and a burial in Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, where Rockefeller had began his empire