Lindquist died in 2003.
Early Life
David Rockefeller was born on June 12, 1915, in New York, the youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr., who spent most of his time preserving John Sr.’s philanthropy, and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.
Rockefeller attended the experimental Lincoln School of Columbia University’s Teachers College in Manhattan and graduated from Harvard College in 1936.
He studied at the London School of Economics and received a Ph.D. in economics in 1940 from the University of Chicago, which his family had founded. His thesis, “Unused Resources and Economic Waste,” argued that capitalists seek not only to make money but also to serve their employees and society.
Also in 1940, he married Margaret “Peggy” McGrath, who died in 1996. They had two sons and four daughters.
In his first job, Rockefeller drafted replies to letters sent to New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia for $1 a year. When World War II broke out, he resisted signing up for service until his mother urged him to do his military duty.
Rockefeller declined to use his father’s influence to secure an officer’s commission, enlisting as an Army private. He served from 1942 until 1945, rising to captain. He joined Chase National Bank, where his uncle, Winthrop Aldrich, was chairman, in 1946 at the age of 30. Rockefeller’s father -- and before that, his grandfather -- had long been the bank’s biggest individual shareholders, and the family held two board seats.
Though tagged as a spoiled rich kid by Aldrich’s successor, John J. McCloy, Rockefeller rode the subway to work for a decade and worked his way up through various departments, including a stint overseeing the Latin America business, to become co-CEO after McCloy retired in 1960.
McCloy, Rockefeller wrote, was indecisive about a successor. Rockefeller threatened to quit when board members discussed having George Champion, who was 11 years older and had been with the bank two decades longer, as sole CEO for a time. Instead, Rockefeller shared power for eight years with Champion before he was named the sole CEO in 1969.