Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, (born July 8, 1908, Bar Harbor, Maine, U.S.—died Jan. 26, 1979, New York City), 41st vice president of the United States (1974–77) in the Republican administration of President Gerald Ford, four-term governor of New York (1959–73), and leader of the liberal wing of the Republican Party. He unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination of his party three times.
Rockefeller was the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., a businessman, and Abby Greene Aldrich. He was a grandson of one of America’s wealthiest people, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., founder of the Standard Oil Company. Graduated from Dartmouth College in 1930 with a degree in economics, he spent the remainder of the decade working for a number of family enterprises, including Chase National (later Chase Manhattan) Bank, Rockefeller Center, and Creole Petroleum.
As director of Creole Petroleum—a Standard Oil affiliate with large holdings in Venezuela—from 1935 to 1940, Rockefeller acquired fluency in Spanish and a profound interest in Latin America. In 1940 he took his first post with the federal government as coordinator of inter-American affairs at the State Department. Although he was a Republican in the Democratic administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rockefeller rose to the position of assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs in 1944.
In 1945 Rockefeller left the federal government and a year later became one of the founders of a private nonprofit group formed to help developing nations in Latin America. He returned to government service during the administration of Harry S. Truman as head of the International Development Advisory Board in 1950, and two years later he was appointed chairman of a presidential advisory committee on government organization by president-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower. From 1953 to 1955 Rockefeller served as undersecretary of the newly created Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Seeking an elective rather than appointive office, Rockefeller ran for governor of New York in 1958 against the incumbent, W. Averell Harriman, and in an otherwise Democratic year won by more than 500,000 votes. His victory made him a prominent candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1960, but he withdrew when it became clear that Richard M. Nixon would be the nominee. Reelected governor in 1962, 1966, and 1970, Rockefeller oversaw massive changes in New York’s fiscal, cultural, and educational policies and facilities. The state university system was greatly expanded, and the number of state employees and the size of the budget doubled and quadrupled, respectively.
With Nixon out of the presidential contest in 1964, Rockefeller again sought the Republican nomination. As leader of the party’s liberal wing, he was opposed by conservative Barry Goldwater, who won the nomination by a slim margin. At the convention, Rockefeller fought strongly, though unsuccessfully, to maintain a commitment to civil rights in the Republican platform. Reflecting deep divisions between liberal and conservative Republicans, Rockefeller, who had denounced Goldwater as an extremist, was heckled by Goldwater supporters during his address. Throughout the ensuing campaign, he steadfastly refused to endorse Goldwater’s candidacy. Rockefeller again entered the presidential race in 1968 and again was defeated for the nomination—for the second time by Nixon. In 1970, however, he won his fourth term as governor, defeating former United States Supreme Court justice and UN representative Arthur Goldberg by nearly 700,000 votes. It was during this term that Rockefeller, amid a storm of controversy, refused to visit the state prison at Attica during the riot there that led to the deaths of 43 inmates and guards.
Rockefeller retired as governor in 1973 to focus on a fourth bid for the Republican nomination and devote time to the National Commission on Critical Choices for America, a private research initiative, and the Commission on Water Quality. He was nominated as vice president by Ford, who assumed the presidency upon Nixon’s resignation amid the Watergate scandal, and after weeks of intense congressional hearings he was confirmed by the House and Senate on December 19, 1974. Appointed head of Ford’s Domestic Council, Rockefeller attempted to create a role for himself as the president’s principal adviser on domestic policy, but his efforts were hampered by the liberal character of some of his proposals and the opposition of other administration officials. As the 1976 presidential campaign drew near, Ford was challenged for the Republican nomination by conservative Ronald Reagan, and Rockefeller, viewed as a political liability, announced that he did not wish to be considered for renomination as vice president.
Rockefeller was also known as a collector and patron of art. He served as a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art and was the founder and president of the Museum of Primitive Art (in 1982 incorporated into the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Wing), both in New York City.