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"U.S. success in the huge effort to expand the economies of the free world," he reasons, "will depend in the final analysis on the contribution of private business." More than 5%. For a long time David was one of the four less visible brothers of Governor Nelson Rockefeller (The rest of the Rockefeller Family, including David, take the line that one brother in politics is enough.). But among U.S. businessmen who have come into contact with him, David has in the past few years built a solid reputation for economic intelligence and insight. Now, wherever he goes, businessmen collect to hear what he has to say. (A group of Ohio executives recently drove 70 miles so that they would not miss his address at a Columbus luncheon.) His exchange of letters with President Kennedy on the balance-of-payments problem, in LIFE two months ago, won him attention from the general public as an articulate, sophisticated spokesman of the business community.
Among those in the best position to judge his ability—his fellow bankers-any suggestion that David has got where he has just because his family owns 5% of Chase Manhattan's stock is dismissed out of hand. "When you are a Rockefeller," notes President Edward M. Bakwin of Chicago's Mid-City National Bank, "a lot of people think you are a success only because of family. In the case of David Rockefeller, bankers hold him in high esteem in his own right." Echoes Harold H. Helm, chairman of Chemical Bank New York Trust Co., an arch Chase Manhattan rival: "David is an effective, able all-round banker, who makes keener competition for us because of his ability." With a touch of Latin hyperbole, a Caracas banker enthuses: "Rockefeller is the most important and capable banker in New York, therefore in the world." Painful Burden. Such freely given trib utes to anyone named Rockefeller would have warmed the heart of David's father, John D. Jr. All his life he was bewildered and embarrassed by the Rockefeller wealth. To John D. Jr., his inherited riches brought an immense moral burden, which he tried to relieve by burying him self in philanthropy; all the while, he doubted his own worth and was painfully conscious of living in the shadow of his dynamic, if ruthless father. But for David, inherited wealth, though a responsibility, is in no way oppressive. "The only question about wealth," says he, "is what you do with it." With his four brothers (Nelson, 54, Laurance, 52, Winthrop, 50, and John D. Ill, 56), David does plenty with Rockefeller wealth. Among them, the brothers are active in some 200 causes, ranging from the Rockefeller Institute for medical research to Colonial Williamsburg. Their generous philanthropies and their Inter national Basic Economy Corp., which underwrites businesslike ventures in developing lands, make it possible for helicopters to spray coffee trees in Brazil, low-cost housing to rise in Chile, astronomers to search the skies from Mount Palomar, textile machinery to hum in the Congo, supermarkets to peddle groceries in Milan, and antiquarians to admire the re-created haunts of Socrates in Athens.