John D. Rockefeller was an American industrialist and philanthropist known to be among the wealthiest people in the history of America. He came from a large poor family, which makes his accomplishments more impressive and interesting. Most people do not know that Rockefeller was generous with his money and time. For instance, he donated a lot of his money to helping people and spent much of his time finding solutions to address problems in society. Therefore, this paper examines how Rockefeller was generous with his money and time.
The charitable giving of Rockefeller began after he got his first job at the age of 16 years. His personal ledger points out that he gave out six percent of his income to charity. His charity exceeded 10% of his earnings when he was 20 years. He focused his contributions to church-related activities, which saw a lot of learning institutions (schools and colleges) to empower freemen after the American civil war in the South. Every time he attended a church service, he would leave behind a substantial amount of donations. His donations grew with the growth of his wealth. Public health and educational courses were the leading sectors that benefited from his philanthropy. He used his wealth to aid the distressed and poor people.
He established a conditional grant. This grant demanded that the recipient institution must address the needs of as many people as possible. His contribution did not just end with giving money, and he also donated much of his time to oversight the management of the money given to the selected institutions. For instance, he greatly funded the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in Atlanta in 1884. The institution, which later on became Spelman College, was concerned with empowering the African-American women. It was named in honor of his wife, Laura Spelman, who spent most of her time advocating for civil rights as well as equality for women.
It is also important to note that Rockefeller donated a lot of money to the Denison University as well as other Baptist Colleges. He also donated over 500 million to the University of Chicago. This contribution turned the University of Chicago to a world-class university from a small Baptist college by 1900. History also records that Rockefeller donated a substantial amount of money to the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, which helped it establish learning institutions abroad, for example, the Central Philippine University in 1905 (Srivastava, Prachi, and Su-Ann Oh, 16).
He also founded Rockefeller’s Education Board in 1903, whose main objective was to promote education across the country at all levels. The board was very active as far as supporting schools dominated with African-Americans in the South in line with the Baptists’ missions. Similarly, he provided financial grants renowned eastern learning institutions like Vassar, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Brown, Columbia, Harvard, and Yale (Martens, Jens, and Karolin, 32).
His philanthropy is also found in medical science. For instance, he founded the Rockefeller’s Institute for Medical Research in 1901. This center was found in New York City but later transformed in 1965 to become New York University after its mission was expanded to include graduate education (Bulmer and Bulmer, 368). It is also important to note that Rockefeller founded the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, whose main objective was to eliminate hookworm disease in society in 1909. According to Ettling (2), this disease had plagued the southerners in the rural areas for long, and he sought to help them eradicate it.
One year later, Rockefeller also founded the General Education Board that greatly impacted after it funded the Flexner Report of 1910, according to the study conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It estimated that he donated almost $250 million to his Rockefeller Foundation, which had a great impact on not only medical training and public health but also the arts. For instance, he is celebrated by John Hopkins for funding greatly its school of Public Health and Hygiene (Ettling, 3). Also, he donated a substantial amount of his wealth for the building of the Peking Union Medical College in China and transformed it into a renowned Chinese institution. Through his foundation, he provided relief for the World War I victims.
It is also important to note that through his foundation, Rockefeller funded the program charged with eradicating hookworms in the 1920s. This was a campaign spearheaded by the International Health Division, which combined science and politics to achieve its goals. The foundations collaborated with the government officials and health workers to contain the hookworms.
His philanthropic works also supported social studies. For instance, he donated over $550 million to support this course through his foundation and that of his wife, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation (Fisher, 218). It is also worth noting that Rockefeller used to give nickels to children and dimes to adults wherever he went during his advanced age. It is also recorded that he could give dimes to wealthy men as playful gestures, for example, the man behind the invention of tire Harvey Firestone.
In conclusion, Rockefeller had a mixture of a long philanthropic career and a controversial career in the oil sector. He was viewed by his peers and those who knew him as a man with a heart of giving not just his money but also his time. His life serves as a reflection of a generous and compassionate America, which should be emulated by all. Politicians, scholars, industrialists, and philanthropists and ordinary citizens talk so highly of Rockefeller as one of the great philanthropists in American history.
Work Cited
Bulmer, Martin, and Joan Bulmer. “Philanthropy and social science in the 1920s: Beardsley Ruml and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, 1922–29.” Minerva 19.3 (1981): 347-407.
Ettling, John. “The germ of laziness: Rockefeller philanthropy and public health in the New South.” (1981).
Fisher, Donald. “The role of philanthropic foundations in the reproduction and production of hegemony: Rockefeller foundations and the social sciences.” Sociology 17.2 (1983): 206-233..
Martens, Jens, and Karolin Seitz. “Philanthropic power and development.” Who shapes the agenda (2015): 32.
Srivastava, Prachi, and Su-Ann Oh. “Private foundations, philanthropy and partnership in education and development: Mapping the terrain.” Public Private Partnerships in Education. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012.