Evening star., 1939-12-17

A. P. Photo.
directed as far as possible toward the
public good.
He heads the Museum of Modern Art
as museum, but also as a means of
educating the people in the artistic
phase of their own time.
He encouraged the short-lived swing
version of Shakespeare, Swinging the
Dream" in the Center Theater, for the
same reason. Almost all of his many
friendships are among those who are
Intellectually or actively interested in
social questions.
Laurance, now Nelson's assistant at
the center, has been Nelson's partner to
a greater or less degree ever since they
raised rabbits together in boyhood. His
skepticism provides a healthy balance
for Nelson's impetuousness. He has an
uncanny ability to project himself into
problems unfamiliar to him. and come
out with the right answer. His method
is highly effective because, with a kind
sort of sarcasm, he puts a surprise turn
to his conclusions which makes people
laugh before they suddenly realize
why, he put his finger on the crux OF
the thing right there"
He holds the family seat on the stock
exchange, having bought the one that
belonged to his grandfather, whom he
resembles in height (6 feet and thinness.
At 20 he is one of the youngest men on
the exchange, but he has the conserva-
tive approach of a much older head,
content to deal with solid investments
and let speculative issues alone.
Plain talk, straight from the shoulder,
is the word for Winthrop His attitude
was aptly expressed in the way he signed
his name not so long ago on a list
acknowledging some benefaction: Win
throp Rockefeller oil man"
For two generations the name Rookie
feller was synonymous with OIL But
Winthrop made news in 1899 by becom-
ing member of the foreign department
of the Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. For no
one else in the family was then left in
the actual employ of the industry.
Rides the Subway.
The grandson's return was reminiscent
of the grandfathers beginnings. John D.
Rockefeller, sr., rode to work on the old
Sixth avenue "el," penciling notes on his
cuffs en- route. Winthrop motors to the
job to avoid the willing morning crush,
but rides home in the evening on the
subway. He does, that is, when he is in
New York. He just returned this week
from a trip to the Near East, where he
was watching development in oil his
grandfather did not Observation-Disclosures
warfare.
Winthrop quit Yale early to work for
three years in the oil fields of Texas.
He drilled wells, fixed boilers, dug bitches
at IS cents an hour. He bunked with his
fellow laborers, sharing their poker
games and "bull sessions" On the side,
he helped launch a health program for
Negroes, which is still going.
Now Winthrop has started another
drive. this one to take idle youth off the
street and into aviation through an or
ganization called "Air Youth of America" !"
Tall, husky, black-haired Winthrop is
"the mans man" of the family. He can
be rough and tumble, he can drink with
the boys, he can swap yarns with the
best of them. But he is also the most
innately gracious of the brothers. He
likes people purely for the human asso-
citation. Pants pressers and bootblacks
are as acceptable to him as bank presi-
dents. He haunts night clubs more than
anv If his hrothers entertains far more
than any of them.
David Doggedly Determined.
Like all his brothers, David is tall Is
feet). Like John, he is serious. More
than any of the others, he is doggedly
determined. He is bashful, but has more
basic confidence than any of the rest.
He knows what he wants to do, and why
he wants to do 1t. He is, nevertheless,
the, unknown quantity in the third
Rockefeller generation because he hasn't
He ended his school days just few
months ago, polishing off at the Univer-
sity of Chicago after the London School
of Economics and Harvard.
Because he has studied economics, the
world has assumed he would become the
banker Of his generation, entering the
Chase bank this fall. David is more
likely to enter politics.
He served a political apprenticeship
at any rate, while in Chicago. As q
member Of student forum, he ad-
dressed neighborhood meetings on po-