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| James Rockefeller, the oldest-known U.S.
Olympic medal winner, died Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2004, his family said.
(AP) |
James Stillman Rockefeller, the oldest-known U.S. Olympic medal winner
and the former head of the bank that became Citigroup, died Tuesday. He
was 102.
Rockefeller suffered a stroke on Thursday, said his grandson, Stillman,
who lived with him at his Greenwich home.
Records of the U.S. Olympic Committee show that Rockefeller was the
oldest American medal winner, a USOC spokeswoman said.
He was the captain of Yale University's eight-man rowing team with
coxswain that won gold at the
1924 Paris Olympics - beating the Canadian team by less than 16 seconds.
The oars from the winning race and the gold medal were prominently
displayed in Rockefeller's house, Stillman Rockefeller said.
"I think he was really proud of that - probably more than the bank
career," his grandson said.
Stillman Rockefeller, who lived with his grandfather for two years,
attributed his long life to a regimented lifestyle: breakfast at 8 a.m.,
lunch at 1 p.m., cocktails at 6 p.m. and dinner promptly at 7 p.m. He
liked plain food, without sauces or cheese, and plenty of fresh
vegetables, including those grown in the garden of his estate.
Rockefeller was in good health until shortly before he died. He drove
his car up until last year and would review documents from the various
charities and businesses he helped lead, his grandson said.
Rockefeller, born June 8, 1902, was a grandson of William Rockefeller,
who founded Standard Oil with his brother, John D. Rockefeller.
He graduated from Yale in 1924 and served in the Airborne Command
during World War II.
Rockefeller started at the bank, then called the National City Bank, in
1930, following his uncle and grandfather, who were leaders of the bank.
He was became president in 1952, chairman in 1959 and retired in 1967.
In 1955, under Rockefeller's leadership, the bank merged with the First
National Bank of New York to form Citigroup.
Rockefeller also was a director of numerous companies, including Pan
American Airways, Northern Pacific Railroad, NCR and Monsanto, and served
on the boards of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the
American Museum of Natural History.
Rockefeller and his wife, Nancy Carnegie Rockefeller, had four
children. His wife died in 1994.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-08-13 11:19