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Local leaders remember Rockefeller as working for West Virginia

PARKERSBURG - Although Jay Rockefeller was not originally from West Virginia, many area business and community leaders felt he left his mark on the Mountain State by serving its people at both the state and federal level for many years.

Rockefeller, 89, passed away Friday at his home in Washington, D.C.

He came to West Virginia in the mid-1960s as a 27-year-old VISTA volunteer with Action for Appalachian Youth in a mining community in Kanawha County.

"He was the most generous and dedicated individual I have ever had the privilege of meeting," said local attorney and former Wood County Prosecutor Harry Deitzler. "He cared about everyone who he met."

Rockefeller came from a prestigious family with a lot of money, but still dedicated his career to working for the people of West Virginia.

"What is even more amazing is he had wealth that other people would have used not to work," Deitzler said. "Instead, he worked every day of his life to help the people of West Virginia and the people of the United States who were not as fortunate as he was."

He first met Rockefeller at Colombo's Restaurant back in the 1970s when Rockefeller was running for election statewide.

"He asked me and the other people there about themselves because he cared," Deitzler said. "He never forgot any of us.

"I wish more of today's billionaires could have followed Jay Rockefeller's amazing example in life."

Deitzler said t would be hard for him to list all of the things Rockefeller did for the state, but it impacted everyone of all ages.

"He was always asking what we were needing in West Virginia and doing whatever he could to meet those needs," he said. "He was something else. The loss of Jay is a multi-generational loss."

Wood County Commissioner and former Parkersburg Mayor Jimmy Colombo said Rockefeller always treated him with great respect.

"Whenever he was in Parkersburg, he always stopped and ate at the restaurant," Colombo said. "He was always a kind person.

"He appreciated the position that I had. He was very easy to talk to about problems."

Rockefeller was very aware of Wood County and Wood County's problems, Colombo said.

Despite his family's money and their name being synonymous with oil and gas, Rockefeller was very down-to-earth.

"He always seemed to have time for you," Colombo said. "When he was with you he seemed like a real person, not someone you read about or someone you see about in Time magazine.

He commended Rockefeller for his dedication to education in the state and how he understood the problems that many people faced with their children in the state.

Colombo commented on how tall Rockefeller was, over 6-and-a-half feet tall, and how he had to have specially modified seats in his car that allowed him to be able to drive.

"He was almost sitting in the back seat because his legs were so long," he said with a chuckle.

Rockefeller and his family founded the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute in 1999 at West Virginia University in Morgantown. The institute is now part of WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. It was founded to honor his mother, Blanchette, who died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. The institute does advanced medical and scientific research into Alzheimer’s disease, human memory, and brain disorders.

"He was very responsible," Colombo said. "This is a problem that everyone faces in today's world.

"He had family members affected and his foundation helped the university establish that. He cared about the state of West Virginia. He was a very kind person and I was very glad I had the opportunity to get to know him."

Attorney Walt Auvil said the most significant contribution Rockefeller made was the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that provides low-cost health coverage to children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.

"That was his baby and his idea," Auvil said. "He shepherded it through. He got it enacted into law.

"Through the CHIP program, countless children in Wood County, West Virginia and throughout the country have gotten healthcare that they wouldn't have otherwise and would have had trouble accessing. In my mind, there are a lot of things that you can point to as a legacy, but it is hard to top that one."

Auvil attended a rally at Parkersburg City Park in 1972 with a group where Rockefeller appeared. West Virginia wasn't exactly George McGovern territory. McGovern was the Democratic presidential nominee who lost the state to Richard Nixon.

Auvil said Rockefeller did not mention McGovern in his remarks and some of the younger people there were chanting "George."

"He starts laughing and says how about `George and Jay' which made us laugh and then we were chanting `George and Jay,'" Auvil said. "He had a way to defuse a situation that could have been confrontational, made it humorous and he turned people into his friends."

Auvil said there are some who criticize people not born in West Virginia coming here and running for office.

"We need people to come in from other parts of the country," he said. "Jay is an example of someone who came in and made things better.

"He was a good steady influence."

Keith Burdette, president and CEO of the Polymer Alliance Zone, was in the West Virginia House of Delegates when Rockefeller was governor, and dealt with him the whole time Rockefeller served as a U.S. Senator.

"When I was first elected to the legislature, I was a 22-year-old kid," Burdette said. "He devoted time to me and was always very kind to me."

When Rockefeller became a U.S. Senator, Burdette worked with him on a number of projects over the years.

"He was specifically involved when we were working to recruit Hino to Parkersburg," Burdette said. "I had multiple conversations with him, in person in Washington, D.C. and on the phone about that."

Although Rockefeller died at the age of 89, Burdette said he doesn't think of him like that, remembering the hardworking man he was in his 40s-50s and 60s.

"I am very sad to hear of his passing," he said.

When Burdette was the state secretary of commerce, he went to Washington, D.C., when the Japanese embassy honored him.

"He is just a giant in West Virginia and the history of West Virginia politics," he said. "His detractors wanted to point out that he was not from West Virginia, but he came to West Virginia and worked for several years in one of the poorest communities in Kanawha County as a VISTA worker, he was elected to the House and as secretary of state.

"He spent an enormous amount of time recruiting international businesses. I give him a huge amount of credit to this day for the recruitment of Toyota to West Virginia.

High ranking officials with Toyota would ask state officials about Rockefeller and talk about their friendship with Rockefeller.

"He will be missed," Burdette said. "When you think about West Virginia politics in the last 50 years, he stands out as a giant during that time."

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com