Yale

J. Stillman Rockefeller, ‘24, would lead numerous family corporate enterprises following his years at Yale. Known to friends and colleagues by his middle name Stillman, he was one of Yale’s greatest rowers. Rockefeller was captain of the Olympic heavyweight crew that won the gold medal in 1924 in Paris, and his photo was prominently displayed on the cover of Time magazine on July 7 of that year.

Rockefeller became president and chairman of First National City Bank of New York. He was director of the National City Foundation, the National City Safe Deposit Company, and the International Banking Corporation. He also served as vice president of the National City Realty Corporation and a director of the Sound Ridge Land Company, the National Cash Register Company, Pan American World Airways, the American Smelting and Refining Company, the American Hawaiian Steamship Company, and the Cranston Print Works Company. 

In 1942, Rockefeller went on active military duty as a major serving with the Airborne Command and Airborne Center as assistant chief of staff. He was a lieutenant colonel in the General Staff Corps at the time of his discharge in 1945. A former trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and a former member of the board of overseers of the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, Rockefeller also served on the University Council as an advisor to the Yale School of Forestry.