Category: Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller

On Dec. 29, 1970, with mere weeks left in his final term, Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller commuted the death sentences of 15 men awaiting execution in Arkansas.

The following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by the Institute’s Executive Director/CEO, Janet Harris, during a book event celebrating Dr. John Kirk’s new biography of Winthrop Rockefeller.

What Winthrop Rockefeller experienced in the military was just as important to his legacy as a philanthropist, governor, and friend to many.

Relationships take time and effort to be authentic, and they require people to become known for who they really are, not just by their wealth or their name. “Rock” understood that.

“Never once did I doubt that our top priority had to go to education,” he wrote in the 1967 A Paper on Education. “Our oldest problems are rooted there, and surely our brightest opportunities for the future are to be found there.”