David Rockefeller, one of the World's Oldest Billionaire, Died

David Rockefeller, one of the World's Oldest Billionaire, Died

David Rockefeller, the world's oldest billionaire, died on Monday morning at the age of 101.

According to a spokesman for the family, Rockefeller, the last remaining grandson of the first American millionaire, founder of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, died peacefully on the family estate of Pocantico Hills, New York. The cause of death was congestive heart failure.

At the time of his death, Rockefeller was worth an estimated $ 3.3 billion making him the 604th richest man on the planet, according to the Forbes billionaire real-time ranking. "

"David was an absolute joy," the spokesman said. "If he was not born into a billionaire he would still be the most beautiful person in the world."

Rockefeller, who earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, ran from Chase National Bank for years. An avid collector of art, he owned Picasso pieces, Monet, Rothko, but also spent time giving away products to dozens of favorite causes. As an example, he has donated more than $ 150 million in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, which was co-founded by his mother.

Rockefeller family plans the first time in the United States in 1720 by Bavaria as Protestant religious refugees. Two centuries later, it has served the country in a military intelligence unit during World War II, passing the time in North Africa and France.

"No one has contributed more to the commercial and civic life of New York City for a period of time than David Rockefeller for longer," former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after news of his death. "I have always admired his commitment to the city, which began with a job of dollars a year working as a secretary for Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. During my time in the City Hall, I was always there for the city when I called."

An Ambassador for Business 

With his intense name and his energy for outside travel — he was all the while advancing to Europe into his late 90s — sir. Rockefeller was an imposing offering power. inside the Nineteen Seventies, his gatherings with statesman of Egypt, Leonid Brezhnev of the land and Zhou line Enlai of China pursued Manhattan turn into the essential yankee manage an account with operations in those nations. 

"Couple of people amid this nation have met as a few pioneers as I really have," he said. 

Some blamed him for cost such a great deal time abroad. He was suspect of disregarding his duties at Chase and neglecting to push forceful, visionary supervisors. underneath his authority, Chase fell such a great amount behind its opponent Citibank, then the country's biggest bank, in resources and profit. there have been years once Chase had the premier disturbed credit portfolio among significant yankee banks. 

"In my judgment, he won't stand out forever as an incredible investor," John J. McCloy, a Rockefeller companion and himself a previous Chase administrator, disclosed to The Associated Press in 1981. " 

"He spend his life journey in the club of the high class and was very trustfull to individuals from the club, regardless of what they did," New York Times editorialist David Brooks wrote in 2002, refering to the beneficial arrangements sir. Rockefeller had cut with "oil-rich tyrants," "Soviet gathering supervisors" and "Chinese culprits of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution." 

Still, presidents as ideologically totally unique as sir. Carter and Richard M. Leader of the United States offered him the post of Treasury secretary. He turned them each down. 

After the demise in 1979 of his more established sibling Admiral Nelson A. Rockefeller, the past vp and four-term legislative leader of late illustrious family, David Rockefeller stood almost alone as an individual from the family with AN outsize national profile. exclusively Jay Rockefeller, an awesome grandson of John D. Rockefeller, had accomplished unmistakable quality, as a representative and us administrator from WV. no one from the family's more youthful eras has earned or perhaps sought to David Rockefeller's stature. 

"Nobody will venture into his shoes," Warren T. Lindquist, an old companion, told the days in 1995, "not subsequently of they aren't sensible, keen, capable people, however thus of it's just an unmistakable world."