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A Rockefeller Timeline

 

• 1839: John D. Rockefeller, one of six children, born on a farm in Richford, NY, son of William A. and Eliza (Davison) Rockefeller. Family later moves to Strongsville, Ohio (near Cleveland).
• Mid-1850s: George H. Bissell forms Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company and buy land in western Pennsylvania where oil is found “floating in ponds”.
• Benjamin Silliman, Jr., professor of chemistry at Yale University, hired by Bissell to discover other uses for “rock oil” other than as medicine (snake oil). Silliman finds rock oil is a good lubricant and distills a new kerosene for lamps that is brighter and safer.
• Rockefeller attends business college in Cleveland.
• 1856: Rockefeller earns $3.57 per week as assistant bookkeeper at a produce shipping firm in Cleveland. He contributes regularly to the Erie Street Baptist. A devout Christian, Rockefeller becomes trustee of the Church.
• 1859: Edwin L. Drake hired by Bissell and banker James Townsend to “drill” for oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania where eight to ten galls a day increases to thousands of gallons a day; “oil mania” begins.
• Rockefeller takes $1,000 in personal savings and $1,000 loan from his father to open own produce business with partner Maurice Clark. They use credit to obtain large quantities of goods for resale.
• 1860: Rockefeller expands his charitable giving to other denominations, an African-American church, as well as a foreign Sunday school.
• 1863: Rockefeller and Clark enter oil business as refiners. Cleveland becomes major oil refining center.
• Rockefeller marries Laura C. Spelman, a teacher, in Cleveland, Ohio. They have five children.
• 1865: Rockefeller buys out partners for $72,500 and establishes largest Cleveland refinery to make kerosene for lighting and oil for lubricating.
• 1867: Rockefeller acquires refineries in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Buys plants, warehouses, tanker cars and wagon fleets to make his company self sufficient as possible.
• 1868: Rockefeller makes pact with Jay Gould, owner of Erie Railroad, guaranteeing a specific volume of shipments in exchange for rebates on shipping rates as well as rebates on oil shipped by his competitors.
• 1870: Rockefeller forms Standard Oil Company of Ohio with $1 million, gains control of area oil refining facilities.
• 1871: Rockefeller expresses concern over wasteful production practices, loss of jobs and unbridled competition in oil refinery business. He advocates greater “cooperation” among oil related businesses.
• In November, he meets with three major eastern railroads to create the “Southern Improvement Company” (SIC). The SIC eliminates competition and drives small oil companies out of business. Rockefeller buys 21 of 26 small Cleveland refineries (one quarter of all U.S. refining capacity. During one, forty-eight hour period, Rockefeller buys six refineries.) Congress later labels SIC “gigantic and daring conspiracy.”
• 1873: Stock market crashes and sets off six-year economic downturn. Rockefeller absorbs refineries in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York and Pennsylvania.
• 1875: Rockefeller buys pipeline systems and direct marketing facilities.
• 1879: Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Company control 95 percent of U.S. oil refineries.
• Mid-1880s: Standard Oil sells inexpensive lamps and the oil to fill them in China and around the world. Half of all U.S. oil shipped abroad.
• 1882: Standard Oil Trust created with 42 certificate or stockholders. Trust circumvents state corporation laws.
• 1888: Anti-monopoly sentiment grows across the United States.
• 1889: Rockefeller profoundly influenced by peer Andrew Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth, in which Carnegie asserts the wealthy have obligation to use personal wealth to improve common good. Carnegie: “…who dies rich dies disgraced.”
• 1890: Sherman Antitrust Act passed, outlawing trusts and “combinations in restraint of trade.” Rockefeller argues that Standard Oil Trust is not monopoly when measured against world market.
• 1891: Rockefeller establishes the University of Chicago, which ultimately receives $35 million from him. Support of the new University is Rockefeller’s first major philanthropic undertaking. Rockefeller hires Frederick Gates to oversee his philanthropic endeavors.
• 1892: Ohio Supreme Court dissolves Standard Oil Trust and separates its 38 different companies.
• 1896: Electricity is replacing kerosene for lighting purposes. Henry Ford begins plans for manufacturing automobiles, creating huge demand for gasoline. Rockefeller retires from active Standard Oil leadership, but keeps title of President.
• 1897: Rockefeller, his son John, Jr., and the Reverend Frederick T. Gates develop a new approach to philanthropy that is still key to most individual, corporate and foundation philanthropy – one stressing “cooperation and conditional system of giving” that hinges major support to charitable commitments from other sources. Rockefellers begin ongoing, major charitable effort to establish American institutions in philanthropy, medicine, public health, and the arts.
• 1899: Standard Oil Company of New Jersey created from former companies in Ohio Trust. New Jersey law permits parent company to own stock in other companies. Rockefeller devotes full-time to philanthropy.
• 1901: President McKinley assassinated. Theodore Roosevelt, vehemently opposed to trusts, becomes President.
• Rockefeller and his son establish the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (later Rockefeller University), which goes on to discover causes of diseases and cures. It pioneers serum treatment for spinal meningitis and pneumonia, identifies causes of infantile paralysis (polio) and African sleeping sickness, and key factors of DNA.
• 1902: Rockefeller creates General Education Board (GEB), another endowed philanthropic foundation, to promote education in the South without distinction of race. Over six decades, GEB will distribute $325 million for improved education in the South and spawn the national 4-H Club movement, and federal programs of farm and home extension.
• “McClure’s Magazine” begins running installments of muckraker Ida Tarbell’s history of Standard Oil.
• 1907: Federal government brings lawsuit against Standard Oil.
• 1908: Rockefeller funds campaign to eliminate hookworm disease in the South.
• 1911: Rockefeller gives up title of President of Standard Oil as U.S. Supreme Court begins dismantling the business.
• 1913: In greatest philanthropic act in U.S. history to that time, John D. Rockefeller donates $100 million to establish the Rockefeller Foundation, chartered in state of New York. Foundation’s purpose is “to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world.”
• 1914: World War I begins and the Rockefellers donate millions to international relief.
• 1918: Rockefeller creates Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial in honor of his late wife (1839-1915).
• 1927: Hookworm disease eradicated.
• 1937: John D. Rockefeller dies on May 23 at his home, The Casements, in Ormond Beach, Florida, age 97 years old. He is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland.
• By time of his death, Rockefeller’s charitable gifts totaled $540 million.

Handout 2Print Handout 2

Thoughts on Robert W. Scrivner

 

Write short, clear sentences to describe Mr. Scrivner in your own words, and assign a character trait(s) to each statement (Caring, Civic Virtue and Citizenship, Justice and Fairness, Respect, Responsibility, Trustworthiness, Giving)

Passage 1: Composed byDr. Richard Chasin, President of the Rockefeller Family Fund:

In 1963, at the age of twenty-eight, he entered the world of philanthropic foundations where, for his remaining twenty years, he revealed in his work the seamless fusion of his idealistic and pragmatic selves. He worked first for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and later for the Rockefeller Family Fund. He became executive director of the Family Fund in 1972 at the time when it became a fully professionalized foundation with clearly defined program areas and a board which consisted principally of younger members of the Rockefeller family...Independent and idealistic, he served not us but our common ideals. Possessed of pioneering vision and courage, he characteristically pointed out the way, encouraged us to consider it and led us along its path...In his work, Bob frequently expressed a cause before it was popular, deftly identified its most promising leaders and assisted in its earliest struggles...Providing early and profoundly effective causes and projects was the hallmark of his career. Though he often trusted and acted on intuition, Bob appeared to have an even greater faith in reason. He believed that even the most complex riddles would yield to the study and analysis of facts and ideas. If he learned enough, he would discover what had to be done...I think of Bob as a searchlight. His passion and brilliance were focused into a fervent beam, which sought out paths to a better future...For those trail blazers on whose path he was focused, he was exciting, enabling, enlightening and inspiring. My words may seem to describe a mythic figure, a giant. But, my impression of his physical person is quite different. He occupied only the volume of space in which he stood. His gestures were spare. His words were not wasted. He thought before he decided and he decided before he spoke.

Possible conclusions about Robert W. Scrivner:

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Write short, clear sentences to describe Mr. Scrivner in your own words, and assign a character trait(s) to each statement (Caring, Civic Virtue and Citizenship, Justice and Fairness, Respect, Responsibility, Trustworthiness, Giving)

Passage 2: Composed by Robert L. Allen, executive director of the Kendall Foundation:

By pushing a fine mind to flank speed, Bob got there before most of us. And, once there, he mapped the territory. He read the books; he scoured the technical papers; he questioned the experts. And, then, deliberately, after time for reflection, he was ready to lead – to lead a board of directors or the whole funding community...Each nonprofit leader with whom I spoke mentioned Bob’s consummate skill as a grantmaker seeking information. With the savvy of a police reporter, the background of a scholar, and his own easy, unthreatening grace, he worked unerringly toward the essence. And Bob was a virtuoso listener. He listened because he cared about what you were doing. In Bob, superiority of mind and position nurtured humility...The president of a nonprofit organization in Washington said, “Most of us gloss over or find ways of couching our passion, but not Bob...did he convey passion! And did he stimulate me! After a meeting with him, I felt that I could do anything!”

Possible conclusions about Robert W. Scrivner:

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Write short, clear sentences to describe Mr. Scrivner in your own words, and assign a character trait(s) to each statement (Caring, Civic Virtue and Citizenship, Justice and Fairness, Respect, Responsibility, Trustworthiness, Giving)

Passage 3: Composed by Tom Wahman, consultant to the Rockefeller Fund:

His deep concern about people and issues was filtered through one of the clearest minds I ever met. His intelligence would cut through to the core of a problem, and then he would speak and write about it with a clarity and simplicity that was as elegant as a work of art...[he]did not get discouraged or downcast about the possibilities of turning things around and making them better. He was not a cynic. Although his mind was nimble and quick, he also pondered and thought about things quietly alone in his office...He was steady; he could see far down the road. He knew that the issues he was involved in developed a certain momentum of their own...[he] had wisdom and a sense of timing as to when things should be done and how far one could push ahead...We all learned a great deal from him.

Possible conclusions about Robert W. Scrivner:

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Handout 3Print Handout 3

Answer Key to Thoughts on Robert W. Scrivner

 

Passage 1:

Possible conclusions about Robert W. Scrivner:

He looked for problems to work on before they became popular causes. Justice and Fairness, Responsibility, Caring

He believed every problem had a solution if you analyzed it enough.

He thought something through before he spoke.

He looked for promising leaders to work toward a solution for the problem. Civic Virtue and Citizenship

Passage 2:

Possible conclusions about Robert W. Scrivner:

He did a lot of research to understand a problem and seek its solution.

He thought through the problem before recommending solutions.

He was skilled at getting information and a good listener.

Even though he was smart, he was humble.

He cared a lot about improving things.

He encouraged others to think they could make a difference in what they were doing.

Passage 3:

Possible conclusions about Robert W. Scrivner:

He cared about the people and the issues.

He could clearly and simply describe a problem.

He was not in a rush to solve a problem but was willing to wait until the time was right to deal with its solutions.

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Handout 4Print Handout 4

Profile of John D. Rockefeller

Few family names are arguably better known in the United States than the Rockefellers. As convenient and visible public icons of wealth, big business, and politics, the Rockefellers have been revered and reviled in American music, literature, and news media. For instance, during the Great Depression, Louis Armstrong sung about being as “Rich as Rockefeller”. Decades later, for many Americans, “Rockefeller” is still synonymous with money and power.

The Rockefellers have made substantial contributions to American politics, health care, and arts as well as to the controversial “competitive capitalism” or business monopoly that gripped the nation at the turn of the 20th century. Few Americans are aware, however, of the equally profound influence the family patriarch, John D. Rockefeller, had on American philanthropy and traditions of civic responsibility and leadership.

John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839 on a farm in Richford, NY, the son of William A. and Eliza Rockefeller. One of six Rockefeller children, John and his family moved to Ohio in his teenage years.

John attended public schools in Cleveland and after a short stint at a business college, began work as a bookkeeper.

Deeply religious, Rockefeller worshiped at a Baptist Church each Sunday and by age 21 was selected as a Church trustee. He regularly gave a portion of all his total earnings to his church, as well as to other religious and charitable endeavors.

At his first job, Rockefeller earned all of $3.57 for a week’s work. In wasn’t long, however, before the ambitious young man joined with a partner in 1859 to start a produce business, using for capital $1,000 in savings and a $1,000 loan from his father.

At the time, a thick black “rock oil” had been discovered literally “floating on ponds” in western Pennsylvania and soon the oil was recognized as an excellent source of kerosene for lights and lubrication.

In 1863, Rockefeller entered this new oil business as a refiner. Cleveland became a major center for the oil industry. As Rockefeller earned more money, he also continued to tithe a large part of his earnings to his church and other religious and social causes.

Rockefeller was dismayed, however, at what he found in the oil business. An “oil mania” was literally sweeping the country as entrepreneurs attempted to get in on the new found source of wealth by starting their own businesses in transportation, refining, drilling and manufacturing. Rockefeller saw an “anarchy of production,” characterized by self-defeating price wars in the oil industry, lost jobs, lost production and “suicidal competition.”

Researcher and author F.X. Micheloud has noted that before Rockefeller later took the industry in his “iron hand, the price of oil fluctuated wildly. It soared or fell quickly, depending on the market being flooded with an abundant supply or starved by a strong demand. In 1859 for example, the crude oil barrel was selling for  $20 and two years later only for 52 cents. Speculators bought huge quantities of crude after an especially generous well (a wildcat) had made the prices go down (or knocked the bottom out of the market, in the colorful English of the oilmen) and stored it in tanks, waiting for the prices to rise again. To invest in such a business needed the temperment of a gambler, which was not lacking to these men.”

In contrast, Rockefeller was a proponent of “cooperation” (others would later call it monopoly) between oil industry sectors in drilling, refining, transportation and sales. He called for vertical integration of business enterprise.

By the late 1860s, Rockefeller bought out many oil refineries in Ohio and Pennsylvania and also purchased plants, warehouses, tanker cars and wagon fleets to make his company as self sufficient as possible.

In what would perhaps be the most controversial and fateful business decision of a lifetime, Rockefeller in 1868 made a pact with Jay Gould, owner of Erie Railroad, guaranteeing Gould a specific volume of shipments in exchange for rebates to Rockefeller on shipping rates as well as rebates on oil shipped by Rockefeller’s competitors over the railroad.

Within two years, Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company of Ohio with $1 million, gained control of area oil refining facilities and worked with other oil companies and railroads to establish the South Improvement Company (SIC). The SIC was an alliance between Rockefeller, other oil barons and the railroads to eliminate competition.

Here is the contract that the refiners who wanted to collaborate with Standard (or the SIC) had to sign:

I, -- -, do solemnly promise upon my honor and faith as a gentleman that I will keep secret all transactions which I may have with the corporation known as the South lmprovement Company; that should I fail to complete any bargains with the said company, all the preliminary conversations shall be kept strictly private; and finally that I will not disclose the price for which I dispose of any products or any other facts which may in any way bring to light the internal workings or organization of the company. All this I do freely promise.

Rockefeller bought out 21 of 26 small Cleveland refineries and by 1879, Standard Oil Company controlled 95 percent of oil refining in the United States.

Rockefeller saw his action as a way to control “the anarchy of production” and dismissed growing public criticism of his dealings with the railroads through Standard Oil. The Standard Oil Company might control most of U.S. oil production, but Rockefeller thought the company’s action was warranted due to a global demand for oil. And, by that time, inexpensive kerosene lamps were lighting homes from Beijing to Berlin. Much of the lamp oil was from the United States, and the Standard Oil Company.

As Rockefeller purchased and consolidated many related oil companies, he faced a problem with state corporate law in Ohio. The law limited one corporation from owning stock in other businesses. To avoid such restrictions, Rockefeller set up the Standard Oil Trust as an umbrella for all his businesses.

Anti-monopoly sentiment against Rockefeller and the oil industry grew across the United States. Yet, Rockefeller continued to expand his control over the oil industry – and few could outlast a price war with Standard Oil.

In the face of business challenges and public criticism, Rockefeller remained steady in his commitment to his family, religion and to a growing concern for less fortunate people in America and around the world.

Rockefeller is said to have concurred with Andrew Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth, in which Carnegie asserted the wealthy have an obligation to use personal wealth to improve common good. Carnegie: “…who dies rich dies disgraced.”

In 1897, Rockefeller and his son John, Jr. developed a new approach to philanthropy that is still key to most individual, corporate and foundation philanthropy today – one stressing “cooperation and (a) conditional system of giving.” The Reverend Frederick Y. Gates also contributed greatly to this philosophy, acting as a visionary behind the institutions that the Rockefellers endowed. John, Jr. played a role of refining Gates’ ideas and presenting them to his father, who had the funds to invest.

What they essentially said was: ‘We’ll provide support for good causes, but only when we’re sure others see the merit in the causes and are willing to help out as well.’ The Rockefellers began ongoing, major charitable efforts to establish American institutions in philanthropy, medicine, public health, and the arts.

Rockefeller’s first major philanthropic undertaking was to establish the University of Chicago, which ultimately received $35 million from him. Rockefeller also hired Frederick Gates to oversee his philanthropic endeavors and implement his philosophy of cooperating and conditional system of giving.

In 1890 Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, outlawing trusts and “combinations in restraint of trade.” Within two years, the Ohio Supreme Court dissolved the Standard Oil Trust and separated it into 38 different companies.

Rockefeller responded by creating the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. He transferred business control to the new Company, since New Jersey corporate law permitted a business in that state to own stock in other companies.

This move would prove to be short-lived, however. Newspaper and magazine articles, such as Ida Tarbell’s “McClure’s Magazine” series on the history of Standard Oil, kept the controversy over business monopoly and Rockefeller’s role in the oil industry before the public eye during the decades at the turn of the 20 th century.

Electricity was fast replacing kerosene for lighting purposes. Some wondered if there would be much demand for oil. The answer was soon provided when Henry Ford refined and then mass-produced an economical automobile in the early 1900’s (Model T) that created a huge demand for gasoline to fuelAmerica’s love affair with the car.

In 1895, John D. Rockefeller was to retire from active management of Standard Oil, although he kept the title of President. He was to devote the rest of his life to his philanthropic activities.

Rockefeller and his son established the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now known as the Rockefeller University) in 1901 as an endowed scientific research institute.

The Institute has been key to major advances in medicine, health care and disease prevention. It pioneered serum treatment for spinal meningitis and pneumonia, identified the causes for infantile paralysis (polio) and the African sleeping sickness and did some of the earliest research on DNA.

A year later, Rockefeller created the General Education Board (GEB), another endowed philanthropic foundation, to promote education in the South without distinction of race. One of the most significant accomplishments of the Board was improving education for African Americans. Over six decades ending in 1965, the GEB distributed $325 million for improved education in the South and spawned the national 4-H Club movement, and federal programs of farm and home extension.

In 1907, the Federal government brought a lawsuit against Standard Oil and within a few years the U.S. Supreme Court began dismantling the Company. Rockefeller gave up the title of company President.

In 1909, Rockefeller combined his interest in the South and his interest in public health by creating the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease. The disease was especially devastating in the Southern part of the United States. The Commission worked to bring about a cooperative approach by the medical profession, public health officials, churches, schools and the news media to cure and prevent hookworm disease. It launched a massive public education and medical campaign in 11 southern states; paying for the salaries of field personnel. More than 2 million people attended more than 25,000 public meetings to learn the facts about hookworm and its prevention. So successful was this Rockefeller-funded effort, that a new agency was created to expand the work to attach other diseases throughout the South and in other countries.

Reflecting the greatest philanthropic act in U.S. history to that time, between 1913 and 1914, Rockefeller donated $100 million to establish the Rockefeller Foundation. By 1928 he haddonated more than $128 million to the cause. He chartered the charitable foundation in the state of New York to “to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world.”

With the onslaught ofWorld War I in 1914, the Rockefeller Foundation also donated millions to international relief and in 1918 created the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation in honor of his late wife (1839-1915).

John D. Rockefeller died on May 23, 1937 at his home, The Casements, in Ormond Beach, Florida, age 97 years old. He is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland.

A controversial figure in the history of American capitalism, Rockefeller maintained a lifelong commitment to his family, his religion, and to fostering a tradition of charitable giving through religious tithing and corporate and foundation philanthropy that would serve as a benchmark for other successful business entrepreneurs to follow for decades in America. He was true to the belief that: “who dies rich, dies disgraced.”

By time of his death, Rockefeller’s charitable gifts totaled $540 million.

Handout 5Print Handout 5

Profile of Robert W. Scrivner

Robert W. Scrivner built his own cabin by hand, but the brilliant Harvard University trained attorney is most remembered for building one of the most progressive charitable foundations in the United States: the Rockefeller Family Fund.

Born September 11, 1935 in Topeka, Kansas, Scrivner was one of two sons of George and Catherine (Winston) Scrivner. Robert Scrivner grew up in a middle class family and attended public schools. In high school, he played on the basketball team and contributed to the student newspaper. His brother Noel recalls that as a member of the high school debate team Bob always chose to argue an issue on the affirmative side which was characteristic of his positive approach to life. His experience as a participant in Boy’s State, a national parliamentarian club for youth, was his first opportunity to be involved in the political process. While there he ran for the office of governor and was narrowly defeated. Although he was disappointed at the loss, it did not discourage him from continuing to take risks.

Scrivner received a scholarship to attend Harvard University, which he supplemented by summer work building houses in Kansas and roads in Alaska. He majored in philosophy. At even this early age, the thoughtful, intense young man was exploring how he could make the most difference to society during a lifetime.

He set his sights on becoming an ordained minister but his father, an engineer with Bell Telephone, urged him toward a career as an attorney. A difficult relationship with his father,

along with a heart murmur that prevented him from continuing in a sport he loved, basketball, were factors that taught him to rise above disappointment and chart his own course. After graduation, Scrivner spent a year on a Lionel de Jersey Fellowship as the Harvard Scholar at Cambridge University in England, studying law. He returned to the United States and Harvard Law School, where he earned a law degree in 1961.

While studying at Harvard, Scrivner had a life shaping and changing experience as a student in the Defense Policy Seminar taught by Henry Kissinger. (Kissinger later served as U.S. Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford Administrations and in 1973 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.) The seminar provided a new perspective and a sense of urgency to Scrivner’s concern over international conflicts and the specter of nuclear war and fueled his aspirations to one day become Secretary of State.

In 1961, Scrivner met and soon married Melinda Brown, born in Montreal, Canada, who graduated from Wellesley College and later taught school. The Scrivners would have one daughter, Katherine.

Melinda Scrivner recalled that after completing law school, her husband “wanted to move to Pittsburgh ‘to save the labor unions.’ He found out the unions didn’t need rescuing at that point in time,” she said with a chuckle. He was employed by a law firm, but didn’t like working in corporate law because he didn’t believe it gave him the opportunity to make a difference for the common good. His “huge social conscience, his ambition and drive to make a difference” moved him in other life directions.

In 1963, at age 28, Scrivner was offered a position with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a major foundation that continued the philanthropic legacy of John D. Rockefeller.

In 1967, Martha, John, Laurance, Nelson and David Rockefeller (John D. Rockefeller’s grandchildren) incorporated another foundation, the Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF), as a vehicle for the philanthropy of a still younger (fourth) generation of Rockefellers. Scrivner was named its executive director. It is significant that during his tenure as President of the Fund, he was in the same age bracket (32-48 years) as most of its board members. In 1978, the first member of the fifth generation was elected to the board, and by 2000 over half the board was comprised of fifth generation members.

Scrivner both helped the family fine-tune their own charitable interests and stretched them to consider creative, risk-taking grants not typically popular with politicians, the news media or even the general public. As one Rockefeller family member would later observe, “He (Bob) served not us, but our common ideals.” He was able to do this because of his impeccable even-handedness and the force of his strongly held personal beliefs, which he expressed with economy and grace.

Dr. Richard Chasin, a colleague and later director of the Family Fund, said: “His graciousness was a matter of fact. He was very friendly in a quiet, respectful way. He treated people as if they were very intelligent and well motivated. With Bob, you got equal respect, whether you were John D. Rockefeller III or the youngest person in the family.”

Others described Scrivner as someone who combined reasoned thought with intuition. He worked “out of his soul, heart, gut and intellect.”

He was concerned about big issues in society and how the Rockefeller Family Fund could most benefit society. Scrivner was good at asking questions. If there was a difficult decision, he wanted the facts, but he also wanted to probe the heart of the issue.

Of all of Scrivner’s efforts to better the human condition through the Rockefeller Family Fund, his work in nuclear arms control was the most important to him and perhaps proved to be the most important for society. Scrivner saw nuclear war as the single most urgent issue of the day, and he, arguably more than anyone else in foundation philanthropy, was the catalyst that led to the great arms control movement of the past 25 years. He worked with the Rockefeller Family Fund board to launch public interest advocacy and public awareness initiatives that exposed the potential biological impact of nuclear war and the inevitable “nuclear winter” that would destroy most life on the planet.

Dr. Chasin said Scrivner had a key role in supporting individual groups involved in the movement for the prevention of nuclear war. He was one of the earliest supporters of the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a group that would later receive the Noble Peace Prize. He was instrumental in Dr. Chasin’s involvement with the group. Scrivner knew that the IPPNW was holding its second meeting at Cambridge University and suggested that Chasin attend.

“I said to Bob: ‘Why should I go to this? Is it just because I’m a doctor?’ Chasin recalled. “Bob replied: ‘No, because it will change your life.’ I went. And it did change my life.”

Chasin described Scrivner as a seeker of information, truth, and productive social change. Although he was over 6 foot in height, handsome, and “Clark Kent-like in appearance (concealing the moral superhero within)”, Scrivner seemed to “occupy only the volume of space in which he stood. His gestures were spare. His words were not wasted. He thought before he decided and he decided before he spoke.” People marveled at his listening skills. A colleague, Robert Allen said that “He combined the savvy of a police reporter, the background of a scholar

and his own easy, unthreatening grace, he worked unerringly” to stake out venturesome new ground for the Family Fund.

At the Rockefeller Family Fund, Scrivner worked with the Board to establish a grantmaking program in institutional responsiveness. He advocated “telling truth to power” and supported efforts that urged social and political leaders, and their institutions to face reality and acknowledge the consequences of their actions on all citizens and on the future of society. He wanted to help ensure that large institutions remained responsible and responsive to everyday citizens and communities.

Chasin said Scrivner believed in the “troublemaker school” of social and political change. As a lawyer, he knew that for almost every good cause there are likely to be relevant laws on the books that are not being enforced. He encouraged the Rockefeller Family Fund to support class action lawsuits. The Rockefeller Family Fund was among the first foundations to assert that cigarette smoking was killing millions of Americans and that tobacco companies should be sued.

In 1979, the original class suits about the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam were filed. Scrivner recommended that the Family Fund support Vietnam veterans exposed to the toxic substance dioxin. Few other foundations were willing to take on this controversial issue. The veterans went on to win their cases in court, and were awarded $180,000,000, the largest amount won by a class of claimants for wrongful injury up to that time.

Under Scrivner’s leadership, the Fund also developed a grantmaking program devoted to protecting the environment, and another program to advance women’s rights to economic equality.

Working long hours and days at his foundation job, Scrivner nevertheless believed in a balanced life embracing his family and other interests. Melinda recalled their mutual love of the outdoors, his passion for chopping wood and making trails, and times spent together with friends at the small family cabin near Woodstock, NY. He said he loved to chop wood because the results were immediately measurable, unlike foundation work where the effects were not so instantly apparent.

One friend said, “Bob’s idea of fun and relaxation was hard physical labor. He built his…cabin without benefit of electricity, using only hand tools. Each board he cut himself; each nail he pounded… Bob loved the challenge. There was always a project in the works.”

Scrivner believed that philanthropic foundations should be continuously challenged to take on the role in society of “nurturing important ideas of the moment.” Recognizing that role is

the purpose of the Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking. Each year, the Council on Foundations selects individuals from the philanthropic and charitable fields who have mirrored Robert Scrivner’s dedication. Melinda Scrivner believes that her husband would have been honored and proud of having this award in his name. She said, “Bob felt that the important thing was to take a risk and go for what you believe in. He thought that even foundations were getting a little too conservative. Risk-taking for what he believed in was what he thought life was all about.”

Bob died in 1984 at age 48, succumbing to his own long struggle with cancer. More than 900 friends, colleagues and admirers joined Melinda and Katherine Scrivner in celebrating Bob Scrivner’s life at Unitarian Church of All Souls, May 16, 1984 in New York City.

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