John D. Rockefeller

Lore & Background

Rockefeller was the second of six children born to con artist William A. Rockefeller Sr. and Eliza Davison in Richford, New York. His father was a traveling salesman who claimed to be a 'botanic physician' and was notorious for schemes, while his mother was a devout Baptist who taught him thrift and the importance of saving money. The family moved several times, eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio, where Rockefeller attended Central High School and a ten-week business course at Folsom's Commercial College. He got his first job as an assistant bookkeeper at age 16, working for a produce commission firm, where he learned to calculate transportation costs and negotiate rates.

In 1859, Rockefeller entered the produce commission business with partners Maurice B. Clark and George W. Gardner. He then concentrated his business on oil refining, founding the Standard Oil Company in 1870. The company lowered production costs and expanded oil distribution through corporate and technological innovations, but also benefited from a legal environment that enabled consolidation. Critics argue that regulatory capture played a role in facilitating its monopoly power, a view reinforced by Rockefeller's reputed remark, 'Competition is a sin.' The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil must be dismantled for violation of federal antitrust laws, breaking it into 34 separate entities.

In retirement, Rockefeller focused on philanthropy, especially regarding education, medicine, higher education, and modernizing the Southern United States. He founded the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University, and funded Central Philippine University. He was a devout mainline Baptist Christian, adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, and relied closely on his wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller, with whom he had four daughters and a son. He spent much of the last 40 years of his life at Kykuit, his estate in Westchester County, New York.

Reader's Guide

John D. Rockefeller's significance lies in his dual role as a transformative industrialist and a pioneer of modern philanthropy. As founder of Standard Oil, he built a company that by 1900 controlled about 90% of U.S. oil production, using corporate and technological innovations to lower costs and expand distribution. However, the company's monopoly power, facilitated by a legal environment that enabled consolidation and criticized as involving regulatory capture, led to the 1911 Supreme Court decision ordering its breakup into 34 entities, including companies that became ExxonMobil and Chevron. His personal wealth in 1913 was estimated at $900 million, 2.3% of U.S. GDP, and he became the country's first billionaire in 1916.

Rockefeller's legacy also includes defining the structure of targeted philanthropy through foundations that supported medicine, education, and scientific research. His foundations pioneered developments in medical research and were instrumental in the near-eradication of hookworm in the American South and yellow fever in the United States. Along with Andrew Carnegie, he gave form and impetus to the work of Abraham Flexner, whose essay 'Medical Education in America' established empiricism as the basis for the U.S. medical system. Rockefeller's approach to philanthropy created a systematic model that influenced later charitable efforts, while his business practices and the antitrust case against Standard Oil set precedents for corporate regulation.

Did You Know?

• Rockefeller became the first American billionaire on September 28, 1916.
• His personal wealth in 1913 was estimated at $900 million, which was 2.3% of the US gross domestic product.
• The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil must be dismantled for violation of federal antitrust laws, breaking it into 34 separate entities.
• Rockefeller's foundations were instrumental in the near-eradication of hookworm in the American South and yellow fever in the United States.