Great-Grandson of the Founder of the Rockefeller Dynasty Has Died
John Rockefeller IV, a great-grandson of the founder of one of the wealthiest families in the United States, has died at the age of 89 at his home in Washington.
John Rockefeller IV, a great-grandson of the founder of one of the wealthiest families in the United States, has died at the age of 89 at his home in Washington.
This was reported by Reuters.
John Rockefeller IV was a Democrat with liberal views; from 1984 he served six terms as the representative of West Virginia in the Senate, after two terms as the state’s governor.
In 2002, Rockefeller voted for a bill proposed by the Republican Bush that authorised the war in Iraq, which began with the US-led invasion in 2003. He later expressed regret over that vote and, as chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, accused Bush of leading the country into war on “false pretences”.
He was a great-grandson of the oil magnate John D. Rockefeller and a descendant of the family that created a political dynasty, which included his uncle, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
The life of Jay Rockefeller, a native of New York, changed direction after he graduated from Harvard and, from 1964 to 1966, served in a national community service programme in the impoverished rural areas of West Virginia.
After taking public office, he worked to expand access to health care, fight poverty, secure health benefits for miners and provide assistance to military veterans.
As a senator, he took part in developing the programme created in 1997, under which the US government helps states provide health insurance for millions of uninsured children.
In the 1990s, Rockefeller supported the failed proposal of the Democratic president Bill Clinton to introduce nearly universal health insurance, and later fought for the successful passage of the health care reform law initiated by the Democratic president Barack Obama, which was signed in 2010.
During the debates on Obama’s initiative, Rockefeller unsuccessfully tried to get the federal government to offer a health insurance programme for broad sections of the population – in addition to the existing programmes for low-income and elderly people – as an alternative to private insurance plans, which can be expensive and exclusive.
Rockefeller was born on 18 June 1937, a few weeks after the death of his great-grandfather, who was the richest man in America.
Source: Ekonomichna Pravda (epravda.com.ua), https://epravda.com.ua/svit/pomer-pravnuk-rokfellera-827394/