Trending
In 1964, a young Harvard graduate and scion of one of the wealthiest families on the planet made his way to Emmons, W.Va., as part of his work with Volunteers in Service to America. At the beginning of that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared "unconditional war on poverty," and John D. Rockefeller IV was one of its warriors.
But rather than doing some light work for a few photo ops and then abandoning West Virginia, the man we all knew as "Jay" fell in love with the Mountain State, and spent the rest of his life working for it as a true public servant.
He broke ranks with his powerful family in more ways than one to do so; but fighting for us was more important to him than the political opportunities he might have had as a Republican in New York while uncle Nelson was running things.
As so, in 1966, he was elected to the state House of Delegates. Then Secretary of State in 1968. A break to serve as president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in the mid-1970s, then governor from 1977 to 1985 -- some of the most difficult years through which our state's economy has struggled, as nationwide trends hit us harder than most. And finally, from 1985 to 2015, he served us in Washington, D.C., as half of a team of powerful U.S. senators.
In every role, he had in mind his constituents back home -- particularly the coal miners and veterans he knew needed all the support he could give. In fact, his work to preserve healthcare benefits for retired coal miners was one of the many reasons he was named an honorary member of the United Mine Workers back in 1995.
His support and connections helped bring Toyota to West Virginia in 1996. He co-authored the Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997. And in 1999, he and his family founded the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute at West Virginia University. Groundbreaking discoveries there are saving and improving lives every day here and around the world.
"Moms, dads and grandparents all want to do the best they can to provide for their families," Rockefeller said in 2014, as he was preparing to exit public life. "In West Virginia, this is what drives our men and women to work hard, day in and day out, and sometimes at more than one job, just so they can afford groceries, a roof overhead and a solid education for their children."
It's what drove him to work hard for those people he had grown to think of as his own.
He raised his own children here. He never gave up on West Virginia. In a host of ways, we are better because in 1964, he chose to stay.
Mountain State residents have lost not only "a true gentleman," as his successor U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito described him. We have lost a champion. We have lost one of our own.
Godspeed, sir. And, thank you.