Steven Clark Rockefeller (born April 19, 1936) is a fourth-generation member of the
Rockefeller family, and a former dean of
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...
. He is one of the oldest living members of the family who still carries the Rockefeller name, in addition to
John D. Rockefeller IV.
Rockefeller is a philanthropist who focuses on education,
Planned Parenthood
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...
, human rights and environmental causes. He is a trustee of the
Asian Cultural Council and an advisory trustee of the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He has also served as a director of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Biography
He is the second-oldest son of former
U.S. Vice President
The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice pr ...
Nelson A. Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...
and his first wife,
Mary Rockefeller.
Rockefeller attended prestigious
Deerfield Academy and received his
A.B. degree from
Princeton University, where he was president of
The Ivy Club and also received the
Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize. Subsequently, he obtained an
M.Div.
For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and di ...
degree from the
Union Theological Seminary in
New York City, and a
Ph.D. degree in philosophy of religion from
Columbia University. He is a
professor emeritus of Religion at Middlebury College in
Middlebury,
Vermont where he previously served as college dean and chairman of the religion department.
In 1959, he married Anne-Marie Rasmussen in
Søgne,
Norway; Anne-Marie was a former employee in the Rockefeller household. The couple had three children before divorcing. Steven Rockefeller remarried and had one child before the marriage ended in divorce. He then wed Barbara Bellows on May 11, 1991.
In 1976, he began an intensive study of
Zen Buddhism, making frequent week-long visits to the Zen Center in Rochester, where he was a trustee.
He coordinated the drafting of the
Earth Charter for the Earth Charter Commission and Earth Council. In 2005, he moderated the international launch of the
United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) (2005–14) in its headquarters in New York, launched by
UNESCO and attended by Nane Annan, the wife of Secretary General
Kofi Annan.
He is Co-Chair of Earth Charter International Council and has written numerous essays on the Earth Charter, available at the Earth Charter website.
["The Earth Charter Initiative-Website"]
Earth Charter Initiative, dates?
Publications
He has edited or written three books:
* ''The Christ and the Bodhisattva'' (SUNY Series in Buddhist Studies). Edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., and Steven C. Rockefeller. State University of New York Press (1987)
* Rockefeller, Steven C. ''John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism''. Columbia University Press (1991)
* ''Spirit and Nature -- Why the Environment Is a Religious Issue: An Interfaith Dialogue''. Edited by Steven C. Rockefeller and John C. Elder. Beacon Press (1992).
Further reading
* Rasmussen, Anne-Marie. ''There Was Once a Time of Islands, Illusions, and Rockefellers''. New York and London: Harcourt Brace, 1975.
See also
*
James Parks Morton Interfaith Award
References
External links
''The Cousins''A 1984 ''
New York Times'' profile of prominent members of the fourth-generation Rockefellers. (requires subscription)
Steven C. Rockefeller - Rockefeller Brothers Fund website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockefeller, Steven Clark
1936 births
American philanthropists
Living people
Children of vice presidents of the United States
Middlebury College faculty
Princeton University alumni
Rockefeller family
Clark banking family
Winthrop family
People from Middlebury, Vermont
Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni
Deerfield Academy alumni
American religion academics