Scion of noted philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Standard Oil’s John D. Rockefeller, Sr., financier and global statesman David Rockefeller Sr. celebrates his 93rd birthday this week on June 12th.

Raised with the privileged trappings of wealth (a nine story New York City townhouse, the famed Hudson River estate-Kykuit, and an 110 room mansion in Seal Harbor, Maine) Rockefeller majored in economics at Harvard, and then attended the London School of Economics before earning a PhD from the family founded University of Chicago.

He later volunteered for World War II and served in the military intelligence…providing a basis for his later friendships with many of the CIA’s top employees.

Interestingly, it is Rockefeller’s active involvement with elite NGOs including the Council of Foreign Affairs, and the influential Trilateral Commission (which he founded) that seems to most rattle conspiracy advocates. As he noted in his memoirs (2002):

“For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions.

Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty and I am proud of it.”

While Rockefeller’s influence casts a wide net across international relations, economic, and cultural spheres, his professional career is mostly associated with Chase Manhattan Bank where his successful tenure- beginning in 1946- included a multi-decade stint as CEO and Chairman.

-J. Ecochard-

This Week in Wall Street History

6/9/08