The
middle heir, Laurance Spelman Rockefeller. was born
in New York City in 1910. Like his brothers, he attended
an Ivy League college, Princeton. When the war broke
out in 1941, he joined the Navy. As a lieutenant-commander
in the production division, he superintended relations
between the Navy and aviation contractors. As such,
he developed a keen interest in military technology.
After the war, while his two elder
brothers pursued careers in philanthropy and politics,
Laurance became a high-technology entrepreneur. He provided
the financing for Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the First
World War aviation ace, to buy the aviation division from
General Motors and turn it into Eastern Airlines, which
subsequently became profitable (after it was awarded the
highly lucrative route to Puerto Rico by the government).
On the basis of his war-time experience, he assumed that
it would only be a matter of time before the government
began replacing bombers with missiles, and he bought a
New Jersey company, Reaction Motors, Inc., which had developed
an early rocket engine along the lines of the captured
German V-2 rocket. When the United States government chose
Reaction Motors to make the engine for its newly-developed
Viking missile, he made a small fortune. As missiles became
more sophisticated, he invested heavily in Marquadt Aviation
whose stock value increased 1000 per cent after it became
publicly known that the government was buying its ram
jet rocket engine for its next generation of missiles.
Laurance was also instrumental in financing the McDonnell
Aircraft Corporation, which became a prime supplier of
aircraft for the Navy.
During the 1950s, Laurance continued
to invest heavily in newly-formed companies specializing
in military technology. The profits generated by the fluctuation
of the stock prices of these companies proved a useful
source of funds for the Rockefeller family, including
his more politically ambitious elder brother, Nelson.
Laurance used his wealth to establish
himself as a leading protector of the environment. He
provided immense subsidies for America's national parks,
including Yellowstone National Park, Marsh- Billings National
Historical Park and the Grand Tetons, which helped cordon
them off from commercial development. He funded the Conservation
foundations, developed resort hotels in natural surrounding
to build public support for conservation and served as
an environmental advisor under presidents Eisenhower,
Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford.
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