Back John D. Rockefeller Afrikaans جون دافيسون روكفلر Arabic جون دافيسون روكفلر ARZ John D. Rockefeller AST Con Rokfeller Azerbaijani جان دیویس راکفلر AZB Рокфеллер Джон Дэвисон Bashkir Джон Дэйвісан Рокфелер Byelorussian Джон Рокфелер Bulgarian John D. Rockefeller Bislama

John D. Rockefeller

For other people named John D. Rockefeller, see John D. Rockefeller (disambiguation).

John D. Rockefeller
Rockefeller in 1895
Born
John Davison Rockefeller

(1839-07-08)July 8, 1839
Richford, New York, U.S.
DiedMay 23, 1937(1937-05-23) (aged 97)
Ormond Beach, Florida, U.S.
Burial place
OccupationBusinessman
Known for
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1864; died 1915)​
Children
Parents
RelativesRockefeller family

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate. He was one of the wealthiest Americans of all time[1][2][3][4] and one of the richest people in modern history.[5][6][3] Rockefeller was born into a large family in Upstate New York who moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder. In his retirement, he focused his energy and wealth on philanthropy, especially regarding education, medicine, higher education, and modernizing the Southern United States.

Rockefeller's wealth soared as kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, and he became the richest person in the country, controlling 90% of all oil in the United States at his peak in 1900.[a] Oil was used in lamps, and as a fuel for ships and automobiles. Standard Oil was the greatest business trust in the United States. Through use of the company's monopoly power, Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and, through corporate and technological innovations, was instrumental in both widely disseminating and drastically reducing the production cost of oil.

Rockefeller's company and business practices came under criticism, particularly in the writings of author Ida Tarbell. The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil must be dismantled for violation of federal antitrust laws. It was broken up into 34 separate entities, which included companies that became ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, and others—some of which remain among the largest companies by revenue worldwide. Consequently, Rockefeller became the country's first billionaire, with a fortune worth nearly 2% of the national economy.[7] His personal wealth was estimated in 1913 at $900 million, which was almost 3% of the US gross domestic product (GDP) of $39.1 billion that year.[8]

Rockefeller spent much of the last 40 years of his life in retirement at Kykuit, his estate in Westchester County, New York, defining the structure of modern philanthropy, along with other key industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie.[9] His fortune was used chiefly to create the modern systematic approach of targeted philanthropy through the creation of foundations that supported medicine, education, and scientific research.[10] His foundations pioneered developments in medical research and were instrumental in the near-eradication of hookworm in the American South,[11] and yellow fever[12] in the United States. He and Carnegie gave form and impetus through their charities to the work of Abraham Flexner, who in his essay "Medical Education in America" emphatically endowed empiricism as the basis for the US medical system of the 20th century.[13]

Rockefeller was the founder of the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University, and funded the establishment of Central Philippine University in the Philippines.[14][15][16] He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church-based institutions. He adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life.[17] For advice, he relied closely on his wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller: they had four daughters and a son together. He was a faithful congregant of the Erie Street Baptist Mission Church, taught Sunday school, and served as a trustee, clerk, and occasional janitor.[18] Religion was a guiding force throughout his life, and he believed it to be the source of his success. Rockefeller was also considered a supporter of capitalism based on a perspective of social Darwinism, and he was quoted often as saying, "The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest."[19][20]

  1. ^ a b Hargreaves, Steve. "The Richest Americans". CNN. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  2. ^ "The Wealthiest Americans Ever". The New York Times. July 15, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
  3. ^ a b "John D. Rockefeller: The Richest Man in the World". Harvard Business School. Retrieved June 17, 2023.
  4. ^ Housel, Morgan. "Who will be the world's first trillionaire?". USA Today. Retrieved June 17, 2023.
  5. ^ "Top 10 Richest Men of All Time". AskMen.com. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  6. ^ "The Rockefellers". Public Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on January 26, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  7. ^ Nicholas, Tom; Fouka, Vasiliki. "John D. Rockefeller: The Richest Man in the World". hbs.edu. President & Fellows of Harvard College. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
  8. ^ "US Gross Domestic Product 1913–1939". Stuck on Stupid: U.S. Economy. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021.
  9. ^ Daniel Gross (July 2, 2006). "Giving It Away, Then and Now". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
  10. ^ Fosdick 1989, p. [page needed].
  11. ^ "Eradicating Hookworm". Rockefeller Archive Center. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
  12. ^ "Hookworm: Exporting a Campaign". Rockefeller Archive Center. Archived from the original on March 20, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
  13. ^ Gritz, Jennie Rothenberg (June 23, 2011). "The Man Who Invented Medical School". The Atlantic.
  14. ^ A walk through the beautiful Central. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  15. ^ Weekly Centralian Link (June 15, 2018) – CPU holds Faculty and Staff Conference 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  16. ^ Facts about Central. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
  17. ^ Martin, Albro (1999), "John D. Rockefeller", Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 23
  18. ^ Chernow 1998, p. 52.
  19. ^ Hofstadter 1992, p. 45.
  20. ^ Schultz, Duane P.; Schultz, Sydney Ellen, A History of Modern Psychology, p. 128


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