David Rockefeller retired as chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1981, served as chairman of the Rockefeller Group, Inc., from 1981 to 1995, and as chairman of Rockefeller Center Properties, Inc. Trust, from 1996 to April 2001.
In 1987 Mr. Rockefeller stepped down as chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a grantmaking organization founded in 1940 by Mr. Rockefeller and his brothers. He is the former chairman of The Museum of Modern Art, and continues as chairman emeritus and life trustee.
Mr. Rockefeller has wide-ranging interests and involvement in the fields of international relations and civic affairs. He served as chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1970 to 1985 and now chairs its international advisory board. He was instrumental in creating the International Executive Service Corps, a volunteer group of retired people that provides technical and managerial assistance to private enterprise in developing nations. He helped to found the Trilateral Commission in 1973 and in 1991 stepped down as its North American chairman, now serving as honorary chairman. In 1979 he co-founded the New York City Partnership, which is dedicated to economic development and effective governance in New York City through private-public partnerships.
He is honorary chairman of the Americas Society and its affiliate, the Council of the Americas, an organization which he founded to promote closer inter-American cooperation, both on a business and cultural level, as well as better communication between the public and private sectors. He served as chairman from 1981 through 1992.
Mr. Rockefeller served as chairman of The Rockefeller University for many years and is now honorary chairman, a life trustee, and chairman emeritus of the R.U. Council. He has also been president of the Harvard College Board of Overseers. Mr. Rockefeller graduated from Harvard College and holds the Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, where he is a life trustee. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer in North Africa and Southern France and was an Assistant Military Attaché in Paris at the time he was demobilized as a Captain in 1945.
Mr. Rockefeller has two sons, four daughters, ten grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. His wife of 55 years, the former Margaret McGrath, died in March, 1996.
Photo by Virginia Sherwood.