LAURANCE ROCKEFELLER
AMONG the celebrated breed of risk capitalists who push out the frontiers of U.S. industry, probably the most daring and successful in the
space age is Laurance Spelman Rockefeller, 49, third (after John D. Ill and Nelson) of the five famed Rockefeller brothers. A blue-eyed, trim (180 Ibs.) six-footer, Laurance Rockefeller hardly needs more money; he is worth about $200 million. But he believes that wealthy men have a social responsibility to risk their riches, invest in inventive young companies. Says he: "I like doing constructive things with my money, rather than just trying to make more." The "constructive thing" was to put $5,000,000 into some two dozen long-shot companies since World War II. In doing so, he also made much more. The value of his stocks in the companies is now $33 million, not counting millions that he sold or gave to charity.
ROCKEFELLER bankrolls blue-sky companies few other capitalists would touch. But he selects his risks carefully. He likes to back young men whose chief assets are ideas ("That is business democracy"), favors brainy companies that may contribute to national defense. A World War II Navy lieutenant commander, he says: "I never demobilized." That was one reason why he bet heavily on aircraft and missile stocks long before they boomed.
Rockefeller got blooded in venture capital by helping round up $3,500,000 to refinance young Eastern Air Lines in 1938. He saved the day for one of his boyhood heroes, President Eddie Rickenbacker, who almost lost control to a bump-Rickenbacker group. Rockefeller took 24,400 shares of Eastern at $9; each is now worth $155 on a pre-split basis, and Rockefeller, with $3,970,000 worth, is Eastern's biggest stockholder. In 1939 an unknown plane designer, J. S. McDonnell, came to him with some paper plans for an advanced type of fighter. Rockefeller put up $10,000 and McDonnell Aircraft Corp. became one of the top plane companies. When Rockefeller's holdings were worth $400,000, he sold out—as he usually does when a company "matures"—to invest in newer companies.
Just after World War II, Navy brass urged Rockefeller to bail out a sputtering rocket pioneer, Reaction Motors. Against his financial aide's advice, Rockefeller put up $500,000. After a tough decade, Reaction grew strong enough to merge with Thiokol Chemical Corp. last year, and Rockefeller got Thiokol stock that is now worth $4,200,000. In 1950, Rockefeller put $202,000 into low-flying Marquardt Aircraft Co., a pioneer in ramjet propulsion; his interest zoomed to $5,200,000 after Marquardt started making ram-jets for the Bomarc missile. But the fastest rise of all was in Itek. Two years ago Rockefeller, a camera bug, invested $279,000 in Itek Corp., which had plans for computer-like photo machines to handle information. He got some Itek shares as low as $2. They soared as high as $315, and Rockefeller's paper profit is now above $10 million.