ROCKEFELLER, DAVID

born June 12, 1915, New York City U.S. banker and philanthropist, the youngest of the five sons of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He received a B.S. degree from Harvard University (1936), did graduate study in economics at Harvard and at the London School of Economics, and then worked for a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago (1940). After service in the U.S. Army during World War II (194245), he joined in 1946 the staff of the Chase National Bank of New York, of which his maternal uncle, Winthrop W. Aldrich, was chairman of the board. He rose steadily in the hierarchy to become senior vice president in 1952 and was instrumental in the merger (1955) of the Chase National and the Bank of Manhattan Company that resulted in the Chase Manhattan Bank. His rise in the merged institution was capped in 1969, when he became chairman of the board (196981) and chief executive officer (196980). His speciality became international banking, and he was a familiar figure to ministers and heads of state of various countries around the world, as well as to heads of multinational corporations.