Nelson A. Rockefeller (Rocky) was born July 8, 1908 in Bar Harbor, Maine. A member of the prominent Rockefeller family, he was the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and the grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller. He attended Lincoln School of Teachers' College at Columbia University, New York, N.Y., 1926; graduated, Dartmouth College 1930. Rockefeller worked for a time in several family-run businesses and philanthropies before entering public service.

He became the Assistant Secretary of State during World War II, where he co-ordinated an anti-Nazi alliance for Central and South America. After the war he headed the International Development Advisory Board, part of Truman's Point Four Program. In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower won the presidency and appointed Rockefeller first chair of the President's Advisory Committee on Government Organization and later as an undersecretary in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

In 1955, Nelson played a pivotal role in the Eisenhower-Khrushchev summit in Geneva. Along with Henry Kissinger, he orchestrates the proposal for mutual aerial inspection of Soviet and U.S military establishments, dubbed "open skies." He resigns from the Eisenhower administration and return as chairman of Rockefeller Center.

Rockefeller ran successfully for the New York governorship in 1958, he was elected to four terms. During his four successive terms, Rockefeller began large-scale welfare and drug rehabilitation programs, reorganized the New York transportation system and built major public works projects.

Nelson attempted to run for the president but he lost to Richard Nixon, he attempted two more times for the seat of the president, yet with on success. In 1971, during one of his term as governor a prisoners' riot broke out at maximum security in upstate New York, which resulted in the death of 10 hostages and 29 inmates, because he would not negotiate with the inmates.

After the Watergate Scandal that resulted in the resignation of President Nixon, Gerald Ford became President and chose Rockefeller as his Vice President. Sworn in on December 19, 1974, he went on to head the Rockefeller Commission investigating allegedly illegal activities of the CIA.

When Ford ran for election in 1976, Rockefeller declined to be his running mate because of opposition from the conservative wing of the Republican Party. At the end of his term as Vice President, Rockefeller retired to private life. In 1979 Nelson dies of a massive heart attack at age 70 under scandalous circumstances, while in the company of a young female assistant.