Nelson Rockefeller

Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979), 41st vice president of the United States (1974-1977). Rockefeller replaced Vice President Gerald R. Ford, who had become president when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.

The son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was born in Bar Harbor, Maine, on July 8, 1908, and educated at Dartmouth College. An expert on Latin America, he was appointed coordinator of inter-American affairs by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. In 1944 he was advanced to the post of assistant secretary of state in charge of relations with Latin America. In this position, Rockefeller did much to implement Roosevelt's policy of friendship and mutual aid among the American nations. He served under President Harry S. Truman as chairman of the Advisory Board on International Development for the Point Four Program.

A notable art collector, Rockefeller was president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from 1939 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1953. He was undersecretary of health, education, and welfare in 1953 and 1954 and special assistant to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954 and 1955. On the Republican Party ticket, Rockefeller was elected governor of New York State in 1958, 1962, 1966, and 1970. Rockefeller unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1960, 1964, and 1968. In late 1973 he resigned to work with the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans and the National Commission on Water Quality.

On August 20, 1974, President Ford nominated Rockefeller to serve as vice president of the United States. After confirmation by Congress, as required by the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Rockefeller was sworn in on December 19. As vice president, Rockefeller headed a presidential commission in 1975 that investigated the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency and reported that the agency had engaged in a number of “plainly unlawful” programs. He also visited several foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia in 1975 and Australia in 1976. He died in New York City on January 26, 1979.