About Dr. Richard Rockefeller

Richard Rockefeller, Ed.M., M.D., served on the Fund's board of trustees for 23 years. He was chair of the board from 2006–2013 and was an advisory trustee at the time of his tragic death on June 13, 2014.

Dr. Rockefeller practiced and taught medicine in Portland, Maine from 1982 until 2000, and had been involved in a variety of health-related nonprofit activities since then. He founded and served as president of the Health Commons Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving American medicine through the use of computer-based information tools and informed shared decision making between patients and physicians. He chaired the U.S. Advisory Board of Doctors Without Borders from 1989 until 2010, and served on the board of The Rockefeller University until 2006.

Dr. Rockefeller was founder and former chairman of Hour Exchange Portland, a service credit barter program designed to rebuild trust, reciprocity, and civic engagement (political scientist Robert Putnam's core ingredients of Social Capital) in Portland and throughout the state of Maine.

He chaired the board of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust from 2000 until 2006 and was a past president of the Rockefeller Family Fund. He lived in Falmouth, Maine, with his wife, Maeve Rockefeller, and their four grown children.

Dr. Rockefeller, a son of David Rockefeller, was first elected to the RBF board in 1989.

In 2016, the RBF launched the Richard Rockefeller Fellowship program to support the development of emerging Chinese professionals who are poised to make a significant commitment to the development of strategic philanthropy in China. The fellowship program was established by the Fund, with generous support from the Rockefeller family and a Chinese private family foundation, the Lao Niu Brother & Sister Foundation, as a tribute to Dr. Rockefeller, who was greatly inspired by the growth of Chinese philanthropy and the relationships he formed with some of the country’s philanthropic families.