John Davison Rockefeller Gallery
About John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York, U.S. He was the second of six children born in Richford, New York. His parent where to William Avery Rockefeller and Eliza Davison. When he was a boy his family moved to Moravia, New York. In 1851, they then moved to Owego, where he attended Owego Academy. In 1853, his family moved to Strongsville, a suburb of Cleveland. Rockefeller attended Cleveland's Central High School and then took a ten-week business course at Folsom's Commercial College where he studied bookkeeping. Rockefeller dropped out of high school shortly before commencement and entered a professional school, where he studied penmanship, bookkeeping, banking and commercial law.
His father, first a lumberman, then a traveling salesman, billed himself as a “botanic physician” and sold elixirs. The locals referred to the mysterious but fun-loving man as "Big Bill," and "Devil Bill". He was a sworn foe of conventional morality, who had opted for a vagabond existence and who returned to his family infrequently. Throughout his life, William Avery Rockefeller gained a reputation for shady schemes rather than productive work.
His father, first a lumberman, then a traveling salesman, billed himself as a “botanic physician” and sold elixirs. The locals referred to the mysterious but fun-loving man as "Big Bill," and "Devil Bill". He was a sworn foe of conventional morality, who had opted for a vagabond existence and who returned to his family infrequently. Throughout his life, William Avery Rockefeller gained a reputation for shady schemes rather than productive work.
Rockefeller had a poem that basically summarized his whole life that he wrote at the age of 86.
"I was early taught to work as well as play,
My life has been one long, happy holiday;
Full of work and full of play-
I dropped the worry on the way-
And God was good to me everyday."
-Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller's charity in total gave away more than $530 million to different causes. His money helped pay for the creation of the University of Chicago and for the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research which was later named Rockefeller University in New York, as well as the Rockefeller Foundation.
He passed away on May 23, 1937 in Ormond Beach, Florida.