--- alias: - Laurance Rockefeller - Laurance S. Rockefeller - Laurance Spelman Rockefeller - Laurence Rockefeller - Laurence S. Rockefeller - Laurence Spelman Rockefeller - LSR born: 1910-05-26 category: Business & Finance created: 2026-10-01 died: 2004-07-11 location: New York, New York relations: - fn: 1 role: son type: relative_of with: '[[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]]' - fn: 2 role: brother type: relative_of with: '[[Nelson Rockefeller]]' - fn: 2 role: brother type: relative_of with: '[[David Rockefeller]]' - fn: 1 role: husband start: 1934-08-15 type: spouse_of with: '[[Mary French Rockefeller]]' - end: 1945 fn: 1 role: lieutenant commander, Bureau of Aeronautics start: 1942 type: member_of with: '[[United States Navy]]' - fn: 3 role: chief stockholder, according to W. David Lewis start: 1938 type: owned with: '[[Eastern Air Lines]]' - fn: 4 role: 60,000 dollars according to Peter O. Crisp type: funded with: '[[Itek]]' - fn: 1 role: family venture capital group through which his investments were made from August 1969 start: 1969 type: funded with: '[[Venrock]]' - end: 1980 fn: 1 role: president, then chairman start: 1958 type: head_of with: '[[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]' - fn: 8 role: chairman of the planning committee start: 1958-05-26 type: head_of with: '[[Special Studies Project]]' - fn: 8 role: 'member of Panel II, International Security: The Military Aspect' type: participant_in with: '[[Special Studies Project]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: chairman of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission start: 1958 type: appointed with: '[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]' - fn: 19 reverse: true role: Washington attorney and long-time associate start: 1993-03-29 type: represented with: '[[Henry L. Diamond]]' - fn: 11 role: chairman start: 1958 type: head_of with: '[[Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission]]' - fn: 1 role: president type: head_of with: '[[Jackson Hole Preserve]]' - fn: 1 start: 1958 type: founded with: '[[American Conservation Association]]' - end: 1982 fn: 1 role: chairman start: 1960 type: head_of with: '[[Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center]]' - end: 1982 fn: 1 role: trustee start: 1960 type: director_of with: '[[Alfred P. Sloan Foundation]]' - end: 1986 fn: 1 role: trustee start: 1935 type: director_of with: '[[New York Zoological Society]]' - fn: 12 role: donated more than 5,000 acres start: 1956 type: funded with: '[[Virgin Islands National Park]]' - fn: 14 role: donor type: funded with: '[[Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab]]' - fn: 15 role: funder, according to the John E. Mack Institute start: 1993 type: funded with: '[[Program for Extraordinary Experience Research]]' - fn: 16 role: partial funder, in the belief of John H. Gibbons type: funded with: '[[Human Potential Foundation]]' - fn: 44 role: funds for the Pocantico UFO workshop, through the LSR Fund start: 1997 type: funded with: '[[Society for Scientific Exploration]]' summary: Son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., chief stockholder of Eastern Air Lines, venture investor, conservation commissioner, and from 1993 to 1996 petitioner to the Clinton White House on UFO declassification. tags: - Person - Rockefeller - VentureCapital - EasternAirLines - Itek - Venrock - SpecialStudiesProject - Conservation - UFO - ConsciousnessResearch - ClintonWhiteHouse updated: 2026-10-01 --- Laurance S. Rockefeller (May 26, 1910, in [New York City](/places/new-york-city/), to July 11, 2004, at his home on Fifth Avenue) was the fourth of the six children of [John D. Rockefeller Jr.](/people/john-d-rockefeller-jr/) and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He attended the Lincoln School of Teachers College, Columbia University, entered Princeton University in 1928, took a degree in philosophy in 1932 and studied for two years at Harvard Law School. He married Mary French on August 15, 1934, at Woodstock, Vermont, began work in the family office at Rockefeller Center in 1935, and served from 1942 to 1945 in the [United States Navy](/organizations/us-navy/)'s Bureau of Aeronautics, rising to lieutenant commander.[^1] His brothers were John D. Rockefeller III, [Nelson Rockefeller](/people/nelson-rockefeller/), Winthrop Rockefeller and [David Rockefeller](/people/david-rockefeller/).[^2] ### Eastern Air Lines The historian W. David Lewis wrote that in 1938 Eddie Rickenbacker, seeking financing to take over Eastern Air Lines, "secured enough backing ... from a syndicate including Laurance S. Rockefeller, who became the chief stockholder in a new corporate entity known as Eastern Air Lines," and that Rickenbacker became chief executive in April 1938.[^3] In Lewis's account Eastern's directors moved Rickenbacker up to chairman in 1953 and named Malcolm A. MacIntyre president and chief executive, and Rickenbacker interfered with MacIntyre's management. Lewis wrote that Rockefeller "decided that the only way out of its problems was a merger with one of the country's two largest carriers, American Airlines." The industry, led by Delta Air Lines, opposed the merger, and it became clear that [Robert F. Kennedy](/people/robert-kennedy/), as attorney general, would veto it on antitrust grounds even if the Civil Aeronautics Board did not; the plan was scuttled.[^3] Rockefeller had hoped the merger would let him replace Rickenbacker and MacIntyre with the chief executive of American, C. R. Smith. When it failed he appointed a search committee, which chose Floyd D. Hall of Trans World Airlines; MacIntyre was fired, and Rickenbacker was summoned to a meeting and asked to retire. Rickenbacker took the news badly and agreed only after a second meeting, which Rockefeller attended, and he left his office at Rockefeller Center and did not return.[^3] The Civil Aeronautics Board regulated routes and mail pay throughout this period. In a transcontinental route case decided in 1961 the Board gave Delta and National Airlines access to [San Diego](/places/san-diego/), [Los Angeles](/places/los-angeles/) and [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) and denied Eastern's application; Rickenbacker had attacked President [John F. Kennedy](/people/john-f-kennedy/) in a speech while the case was pending.[^3] ### Venture Investments Peter O. Crisp joined Rockefeller's staff in 1960 and sat on the board of Apple Computer for sixteen years; in an oral history recorded on October 21, 2008 he described the origin of the family's venture investing. After the war, Crisp said, Rockefeller hired "these three guys" to look for small technology companies: Randy Marston, "who had worked for the Chase Bank for many years"; Harper Woodward, "General Arnold's assistant in [World War II](/events/world-war-ii/) in the Pentagon for procurement matters"; and Teddy Walkowicz, "a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force" and "an MIT guy"; he named a fourth man, Jay Richardson Dilworth, as "kind of the senior advisor to the [Rockefeller family](/people/rockefeller-family/)." Crisp said he screened proposals "for Marston, Woodward and Walkowicz," the "big shots" who then joined the boards.[^4] Among the investments Crisp listed since 1946 were New York Airways, Eastern Air Lines, the Glenn L. Martin Company, Reaction Motors (later bought by Thiokol), the Marquardt Aircraft Company (ramjet engines for missiles), Island Packers ("a tuna factory in the Pacific"), Flight Refueling, the Piasecki Helicopter Company (merged with Vertol and later acquired by Boeing) and Aircraft Radio (bought by Cessna); he also named Itek and Scantlin Electronics, maker of the Quotron.[^4] Crisp said the staff passed on Haloid, which became Xerox, after a former staff member's memorandum found no future in its copier technology, on which Marston wrote "I concur."[^4] From August 1969 Rockefeller's investments were channeled through Venrock, which Crisp said was formed in 1969 and given its name because "we didn't want to be confused with philanthropy."[^1][^4] The record on Itek carries three dates. The Boston Globe obituary of Dick Leghorn states that he cofounded Itek in 1957, and quotes him that the company was known as "the mystery company. It was very hush-hush."[^5] The [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/)'s history of the CORONA satellite program, by Kenneth E. Greer, published in a classified supplement to Studies in Intelligence in spring 1973, states that in late March and April 1958 "interest shifted to a competitive design submitted by Itek Corporation, a spin-off of Boston University," that the project proposal completed on April 9, 1958 was rewritten twice, "retaining the Itek configuration," and that the final proposal was forwarded on April 16, 1958 to the President's staff secretary and approved, "although not in writing"; Itek "was made responsible for the design and development of the camera subsystem, Fairchild producing the camera under subcontract to Itek."[^6] Crisp, who joined the staff in 1960, dated Leghorn's approach to Rockefeller to "around 1960": Leghorn said Eastman Kodak's cameras were heavy and inefficient, and Rockefeller told him to show he could leave Eastman Kodak without being sued, and put up 60,000 dollars in 1960 together with William A. Burden and Company and "the Walker Brothers, Elisha and Bayard Walker, who had an investment company called the Long Island Company." Crisp said Itek was later bought by Litton Industries and that the product "which made them famous" was "the camera which was in the U-2 plane that was flown by Francis Gary Powers."[^4] On Apple, Crisp said that Mike Markkula, who had advised the founders, called Venrock when Markkula's 110,000-dollar loan guarantee ran out, and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak came to New York. Venrock bought 10 percent of the company for 300,000 dollars, valuing it at 3 million dollars, and put in 200,000 dollars more about eight months later; at the initial public offering the 500,000 dollars was worth 110 million dollars. When Apple prepared to go public the company wanted the managing partner on the board, and Crisp took the seat of his partner Hank Smith, who "made a lot of money in Intel and in Apple."[^4] ### Special Studies Project The [Rockefeller Brothers Fund](/organizations/rockefeller-brothers-fund/)'s Special Studies Project began in 1956 under its president, Nelson Rockefeller, who chaired it for two years; when Nelson became governor of New York in 1958 Laurance became chairman.[^7] The published planning committee lists "Laurance S. Rockefeller, (Chairman since May 26, 1958)" and "Nelson A. Rockefeller, (Chairman, resigned May 26, 1958)," with Dana S. Creel, Nancy Hanks, Emmet John Hughes, Francis A. Jamieson, [Henry A. Kissinger](/people/henry-a-kissinger/), John E. Lockwood and Oscar M. Ruebhausen.[^8] Panel II, "International Security: The Military Aspect," first published on January 6, 1958, had been meeting since November 1956 and was the first panel to report.[^8] Its members, as listed in the 1961 volume, were Frank Altschul, General Frederick L. Anderson, Karl R. Bendetsen, Detlev W. Bronk, Gordon E. Dean, James B. Fisk, Bradley Gaylord, [Roswell L. Gilpatric](/people/roswell-l-gilpatric/), Townsend W. Hoopes of J. H. Whitney and Company, Ellis A. Johnson of the Operations Research Office, Colonel George A. Lincoln, Henry R. Luce, General James McCormack Jr. (chairman until October 1957), Frank C. Nash, "Laurance S. Rockefeller, president, Rockefeller Brothers, Inc.," Arthur Smithies, [Edward Teller](/people/edward-teller/), "T. F. Walkowicz, aeronautical engineer," Carroll L. Wilson, and John F. Floberg until his appointment to the [Atomic Energy Commission](/organizations/atomic-energy-commission/) in June 1957.[^8] The panel reports were published as *Prospect for America* by Doubleday in 1961 and sold over 400,000 copies, and participants later served in the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford administrations.[^7] The Central Intelligence Agency's files hold correspondence on two of the releases. [Allen Dulles](/people/allen-dulles/), [Director of Central Intelligence](/organizations/director-of-central-intelligence/), wrote to Rockefeller on September 16, 1960: "I have found this study, like the other reports in your special studies project, most interesting." The study was *The Power of the Democratic Idea*, and a copy of it in the agency's files carries a notice that it was sent "in advance of the RELEASE DATE, Wednesday, September 7, 1960" and was to be treated as confidential until then.[^9] On February 20, 1961 Rockefeller wrote to Dulles on Rockefeller Brothers Fund stationery that lists him as president, enclosing an advance copy of *Prospect for America*, which was to be published on March 17; his letter states that the Trustees of the Fund organized the project "in the belief that there was real merit in a group of citizens making an effort to look at America as it is." Dulles replied on March 1, 1961 that the book would be "a welcome and valuable addition to my private library."[^10] ### Conservation Commissions, Jackson Hole and the Virgin Islands In 1958 President [Dwight D. Eisenhower](/people/dwight-d-eisenhower/) appointed Rockefeller chairman of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission.[^1] He later served as a special emissary for President [Lyndon B. Johnson](/people/lyndon-b-johnson/) on the creation of Redwood National Park and chaired President [Richard Nixon](/people/richard-nixon/)'s Citizens' Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality. He was president, then chairman, of the Fund from 1958 to 1980, chairman of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center from 1960 to 1982, a trustee of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation from 1960 to 1982, and a trustee of the New York Zoological Society from 1935 to 1986. In 1958 he established the American Conservation Association, Inc., a philanthropy to function as a conservation service agency, assisting other agencies and initiating projects of its own.[^1] The commission's members were Senators Clinton P. Anderson, Henry C. Dworshak, Henry M. Jackson and Jack Miller; Representatives John P. Saylor, Gracie Pfost, Ralph J. Rivers and John H. Kyl; and presidential commissioners Samuel T. Dana, Marian S. Dryfoos, Bernard L. Orell, Joseph W. Penfold, M. Frederick Smith and Chester S. Wilson. The report was presented to President Kennedy and Congress on the Wednesday before the Interior Department's release of February 1, 1962, and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall gave priority to the creation of a Bureau of Outdoor Recreation.[^11] As president of Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc., Rockefeller made the 1949 gift of Jackson Hole land to the federal government on his father's behalf.[^1] Virgin Islands National Park "was created through a donation of more than 5,000 acres of land in 1956 ... from Laurance Rockefeller"; in the mid-1950s he established the Caneel Bay Resort on St. John, which operated until Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria closed it in 2017; and in 1983 Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc., "an organization established by Laurance Rockefeller," donated the roughly 150 acres of the resort to the Park Service, subject to a retained use estate allowing its operator to use the property as a resort until September 30, 2023.[^12] The corporation, with an [Internal Revenue Service](/organizations/internal-revenue-service/) ruling date of 1942, still files returns from Woodstock, Vermont, and reported assets of 5,327,031 dollars for 2023.[^13] ### Consciousness Research The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory, established in 1979 by [Robert Jahn](/people/robert-jahn/), announced its closure on February 10, 2007, stating that its research "was funded by gifts from Princeton alumni James S. McDonnell, patriarch of the McDonnell Douglas Aerospace empire, Laurance Rockefeller, Donald C. Webster, and by numerous other philanthropic benefactors."[^14] According to the John E. Mack Institute, in 1993 the Center for Psychology and Social Change formed the Program for Extraordinary Experience Research "with funding from Laurence Rockefeller" to study reported "alien encounters"; the program's own page states that as of 2002 it was no longer an active research project.[^15] C. B. Scott Jones wrote to the presidential science adviser, John H. Gibbons, on the letterhead of the Human Potential Foundation of Falls Church, Virginia.[^16] A handwritten note of February 24, 1994 on one of those letters, initialed by Gibbons, concerns Jones's association with Senator [Claiborne Pell](/people/claiborne-pell/) and reads: "Scott Jones used to be associated with Senator Pell. He was formerly a Navy pilot. The Human Potential Foundation is funded in part, I believe, by L.R."[^16] In the same office's memorandum for the President of August 4, 1995, Gibbons wrote that Rockefeller's interests "are related to those of Senator Pell."[^17] The writer Grant Cameron, in a paper on the documents below, wrote that Pell founded the foundation and Jones was its president, that Common Cause Magazine had reported Rockefeller put more than 700,000 dollars through it from 1991 to 1994, and that Richard Farley, who worked for the foundation for about three years, gave the same figure and "claimed" that Rockefeller's interest was in "alternative religious and psychiatric/psychological paradigms, including so-called 'UFOs' and 'abductions,' having 'Global Mind Change' potentials."[^18] ### Approach to the Science Adviser, 1993 The [Office of Science and Technology Policy](/organizations/office-of-science-and-technology-policy/), where Gibbons was Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, released 991 pages of correspondence on UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence to Cameron in January 2001, according to Cameron.[^18] The earliest is a memorandum of March 29, 1993 from Henry L. Diamond to Gibbons (attention Mike Kowalok), concerning an approach by Rockefeller to President [Bill Clinton](/people/bill-clinton/) and asking for a meeting with Rockefeller on April 12 or 13. It describes Rockefeller as "a leading U.S. conservationist, businessman, and philanthropist" who, "with other leading citizens, is planning to make an approach to President Clinton" on "the potential availability of government information about unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrial life," and gives the basic message as "a belief in many quarters that the government has long held classified information regarding UFOs which has not been released and that the failure to do so has brought about unnecessary suspicion and distrust." It states that Rockefeller would be accompanied by Jones, "President of the Human Potential Foundation," and by Diamond, "a Washington attorney and long-time associate of Mr. Rockefeller, known to Dr. Gibbons." A handwritten note adds "+ Scott Jones."[^19] On April 21, 1993, on stationery of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Room 5600, Rockefeller thanked Gibbons for seeing him "so early Wednesday morning." He wrote that Gibbons had said that in three months as science adviser he had "not learned that the United States Government has a body of knowledge on UFOs or ETI that is being withheld from the public," and had made it clear that "initially our most fruitful avenue of approach, most likely, will be within the [Department of Defense](/organizations/department-of-defense/)." Rockefeller would report on the meeting to Melvin Laird and hoped to follow up with Secretary of Defense Les Aspin; he planned a letter to President Clinton urging "a reassessment of government policy regarding UFO and ETI information" and a small group, convened with Jones's help, to discuss UFOs "in an informal, non-public way."[^20] On May 26, 1993 Gibbons, signing as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, thanked Jones for "the materials," noted that the books "came from the Foundation's library," and sent "best wishes and regards to Lawrence."[^21] On May 7, 1993 he wrote to the evangelist Billy Graham, proposing that Graham co-sign a letter to Clinton asking for a review of the classification of UFO information, and stated that "we are working closely with Mel Laird, former Secretary of Defense, and a great good friend of the present Secretary, Les Aspin," and had met Gibbons. The other co-signers under consideration were Maurice Strong, the former [United Nations](/organizations/united-nations/) secretary general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, possibly former President [Jimmy Carter](/people/jimmy-carter/), and Senators Pell and [Ted Stevens](/people/ted-stevens/). Graham replied on May 20, 1993 that he thought Rockefeller was "exactly right, that since they are reviewing the whole classification process, many documents will probably become available that have not previously," and declined, writing that he had "made it a policy not to co-sign such letters" and kept his contacts with presidents "on a purely personal, one-on-one, private basis."[^22] On August 4, 1993 Rockefeller invited Gibbons or a representative to an informal roundtable he was hosting from September 13 to 15 at the JY Ranch, in the Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyoming. The letter gives the purpose as assessing "the extent of information which may or may not be in the hands of the federal government" and developing "productive ways to encourage the Administration to include information of UFO and ETI phenomena in its current review of previously classified information." The six presenters were Steven Greer, Linda Moulton Howe, Bruce Maccabee, R. Leo Sprinkle, Jill Tarter of the [NASA](/organizations/nasa/) Ames Research Center and Keith Thompson; John Mack, Peter Sturrock, "a representative of the Science Advisor to the President" and "several of my associates" were also invited. The four themes included "strategies for influencing government policy in the direction of openness," "assessment of alleged psychological, economic and other barriers to a government policy of openness on the subject," and "spiritual and other dimensional aspects of UFO and ETI phenomena." The roundtable "will not be publicized but, of course will not be secret" and would be off the record.[^23] The Paradigm Research Group reproduces a photograph that it captions as the September 14 to 15, 1993 meeting at the JY Ranch and labels, left to right, Diamond, Greer, Maccabee, George Lamb, [Robert Bigelow](/people/robert-bigelow/), Howe, Sprinkle, Thompson, Mack, Rockefeller, Jones, Johnie Jones and Robert Teets, with Marie "Bootsie" Galbraith and Farley behind the camera.[^24] On November 12, 1993 Diamond, on the letterhead of Beveridge and Diamond, wrote to a Gibbons staff member that he had seen Gibbons at the Environmental Law Institute dinner on October 20 and that Rockefeller wished to see him again between December 10 and 23.[^25] ### Roswell, 1994 After a meeting on February 4, 1994, Rockefeller wrote to Gibbons on February 14 that "your approach of starting by addressing a specific incident is an important and reasonable way to begin the process of declassification," that the July 1947 [Roswell Incident](/events/roswell-incident/) "would be a logical and challenging place to start," and that if the effort succeeded it "will become an important prototype for the release of all UFO related information." He proposed amnesty "on an individual basis" for those with knowledge, and, "in the light of your proposed initiative," said "we shall defer writing to the President."[^26] On May 24, 1994 Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall sent Gibbons a cover memorandum, "As you and I discussed earlier, we are researching Air Force material on UFOs in general, and Roswell in particular," with an interim report to her of May 20 from the office designated SAF/AAZ. The report stated that "in early Feb 94, upon learning of the projected GAO audit," the Air Force had stood up elements of its Declassification Review Team to begin preliminary research, and that the offices tasked had "reported no records were located to indicate anything unusual happened at Roswell in July 1947." Widnall wrote: "My policy is that we are declassifying everything even remotely related, and anything our people think still needs to be classified will have to be justified to me." A handwritten note on the cover, initialed "JG," reads: "Skip - for your scanning. After you and I have a chance to discuss, I'll be ready to communicate w/ L.R. + his niece."[^27] Jones wrote to Gibbons on February 17 enclosing a chronology compiled by the Fund for UFO Research and press clippings on the inquiry by Representative Steven Schiff, and reporting that a [Pentagon](/organizations/pentagon/) spokesman had told a General Accounting Office investigator "Go shit in your hat." He had spent time after the February 4 meeting with Edward J. Reese of the Modern Military Branch of the National Archives and Records Administration on where Roswell documentation might be located. The letter's second page reads: "Whatever Roswell turns out to be, it is only the opening round. ... My mention of mind-control technology at the February 4 meeting was quite deliberate. Please be careful about this. There are reasons to believe that some government group has interwoven research about this technology with alleged UFO phenomena. If that [is] correct, you can expect to run into early resistance when inquiring about UFOs, not because of the UFO subject, but because that has been used to cloak research and applications of mind-control activity."[^16] On June 1, 1994 Rockefeller wrote that "it was Mel Laird who suggested that you should be the logical point of contact and coordination with the federal government," asked whether there were developments in the survey of information among federal agencies on Roswell that Gibbons had suggested, attached a letter from Laird, and mentioned "preliminary talks with those who might be interested in bringing about a United Nations Conference on extraterrestrial intelligence."[^28] Laird's letter, dated May 9, 1994 and replying to one from Rockefeller of April 25, stated that "you are proceeding properly by going through the President's Science Advisor," and that "any review will certainly disappoint some individuals who have built up some rather extreme antidotal and uncollaborated accounts."[^28] On July 27, 1994 Anne Bartley wrote to Gibbons about "follow-up on our meeting with Laurance S. Rockefeller and his associates," recalling that Gibbons had suggested "an informal inquiry into the availability of information within federal agencies about the 1947 Roswell, [New Mexico](/places/new-mexico/), event," asking about "prospects for a relaxation of the classification system," and stating that Rockefeller "has begun to wonder whether a U.N. Conference would be useful."[^29] On August 11, 1994 Jones wrote to Gibbons that [Edgar Mitchell](/people/edgar-mitchell/), founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, on whose board Pell sat, would be glad to meet Gibbons "in the area that Laurance, you and I have been discussing," and that Gibbons "may want to talk to James Woolsey about what you are doing." The next lines, partly cut off in the scan, say that Woolsey "has a document search project under way" and "has not discovered anything of significance," and Jones adds: "If I had the responsibility to run a super safe black program on this subject, I would take it completely out of the government's" bureaucracy "and run it from the private sector, probably somewhere within" the aerospace community "or perhaps General Motors."[^30] On September 5, 1994 Rockefeller thanked Gibbons for a note that he had received a report from the Air Force; after the [Air Force](/organizations/us-air-force/) released the results of its Roswell investigation (in July 1994 in the General Accounting Office's account, and publicly available in September in Gibbons's)[^17][^31] he wrote on December 9 thanking Gibbons for "your initiative in stimulating the recent Air Force Review of the Roswell incident," adding that "we are continuing our citizens' reconnaissance of the extraterrestrial intelligence phenomenon."[^32] On February 9, 1995 Jones wrote that "there is some shadowy evidence that the administration is in the process of modifying the government's policy concerning secrecy and denial about UFO phenomena," that "Laurance mentioned that he was also considering a public relations approach" and that "he can afford a rather aggressive and expensive effort implementing that strategy, e.g., full page ads in major newspapers," and that after Rockefeller's last meeting with Gibbons "we are not going to get feedback from our attempts to get the [White House](/places/white-house/) to open the books on this subject."[^33] On April 11, 1995 Rockefeller wrote that he had reviewed the draft executive order revising national classification policy and that "my concern with government information involving extraterrestrial intelligence was stimulated by the widespread public belief that the government was withholding information about UFO incidents."[^34] The General Accounting Office wrote to Gibbons on April 12, 1995, at Schiff's request, that it was determining what records existed on Roswell. Gibbons replied on April 26 to the GAO's director of federal management issues that the Office of Science and Technology Policy had "no direct knowledge of what occurred at Roswell and no records, except for the information I received from the Air Force."[^31] An internal OSTP message of June 9, 1995 reports a call from the GAO about its eight-page report, which would state that the agency had asked OSTP and other agencies whether they held records and that "DOE and OSTP had no records"; a handwritten reply of June 12, signed "Sue B.," reads "Tanya, OK w/ JHG."[^35] ### The Draft Letter to the President, 1995 and 1996 On August 4, 1995 Gibbons sent President Clinton a memorandum headed "Inquiry from Laurance Rockefeller." It begins: "You will probably see Mr. Rockefeller on your vacation in the Tetons. He will want to talk with you about his interest in extrasensory perception, paranormal phenomena, and UFO's. His interests are related to those of Senator Pell." Gibbons wrote that "Les Aspin and Mel Laird referred Laurance to me," that Rockefeller had sought "the Administration's help in 'declassifying the information'," that "I persuaded Rockefeller to not bother you with this issue but instead to let me talk with defense officials," that Secretary of the Air Force Widnall had "arranged for a full revisiting by the Air Force of pertinent records, guaranteed 'amnesty' to anyone who felt constrained to talk," and that "the bottom line is that all evidence points to a failed U.S. Air Force balloon experiment, and no evidence of a 'flying saucer' or cover-up conspiracy. (However, the UFO 'community' persists in believing that the Air Force report is flawed.)" A "second rubric" was "human potential" research: "Senator Pell and others have supported the funding of research in social science to focus more on these phenomena." Gibbons closed: "I've made no secret about my conviction that we must not be too diverted from more earthly imperatives."[^17] The Clintons began a vacation in Jackson Hole on August 15, 1995, with Senator Jay Rockefeller and his wife, Sharon, as hosts at a Rockefeller family estate.[^36] The William J. Clinton Presidential Library holds photographs, in a set processed for a [Freedom of Information Act](/events/freedom-of-information-act/) request, of a visit by President Clinton and [Hillary Rodham Clinton](/people/hillary-clinton/) to Laurance Rockefeller's JY Ranch on August 21, 1995.[^36] On August 17 Jones, writing on Human Potential Foundation letterhead to Representative Schiff, described a conference, "When Cosmic Cultures Meet," held in Washington over the Memorial Day weekend: "The conference was part of a process to make it politically safe for Congress to get involved in a subject that from all available evidence has been the secret purview of the executive department for nearly fifty years."[^37] On August 23, 1995 Rockefeller's office faxed Gibbons five pages plus a cover sheet: a draft letter to President Clinton, headed "Lifting Secrecy on Information About Extraterrestrial Intelligence as Part of the Current Classification Review," and the 1993 exchange with Graham. The draft states that Rockefeller has "been interested in the enhancement of spirituality and holistic healing as well as the development of a new paradigm of consciousness," and asks the President to direct that information on extraterrestrial intelligence and UFOs "be given priority in the current classification review," to appoint a coordinator for government information about those subjects, to bring together information "from all federal agencies involved, such as the Department of Defense, the Air Force, NASA and the CIA" ("Your Science Advisor, Jack Gibbons, might be the right person for this role"), and to make known that anyone with information "will be granted amnesty from relevant oaths or other government constraints."[^22] On November 1, 1995 Diamond, writing from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Room 5600, sent Gibbons "a draft letter to the President which Laurance has been discussing with Mrs. Clinton and her staff" and a draft report on the "best evidence" about UFOs; a letter of November 8 identified Don Berliner as its principal author.[^38] On February 5, 1996 Rockefeller told Gibbons that the "Best Evidence Report (the report written by Don Berliner and coordinated by Marie Galbraith which we have referred to as the 'Bootsie report')" was an "unusual combined effort of the three major UFO organizations." He wrote that Gibbons's "willingness to approach the Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency and NASA on this project is extremely important," and that the group would put forward names for a pilot project on an expanded amnesty program. The draft letter to the President, he wrote, "might receive attention in a second term. You indicated that you will keep the First Lady's Office informed, and we shall as well."[^39] On February 27, 1996 Widnall wrote to Gibbons, after "our recent dinner conversation," enclosing "the full Roswell Report to pass on to Lawrence Rockefeller" and noting that a second volume was in preparation; on February 29 Rockefeller sent Gibbons the "Best Available Evidence" report, writing "I sponsored this report" and, "while I do not necessarily agree with every finding and conclusion," that "the evidence presented indicates that this subject merits serious scientific study," with a new draft of the letter to the President.[^40] On October 17, 1996 he proposed an international conference. "At the suggestion of Maurice Strong," he had contacted Julia Marton Lefevre, executive director of what the letter calls the International Scientific Union, and he forwarded a letter from [Carl Sagan](/people/carl-sagan/), writing that he was "puzzled by Carl's enthusiastic support of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence by radio telescope while he maintains a high degree of skepticism about other means of inquiry."[^41] In a letter of January 2, 1997 to Gibbons, Maccabee wrote that in April 1993, "at the request of Dr. Ronald Pandolfi of the CIA," he had faxed Gibbons an information paper on UFOs.[^42] On June 20, 1997 the Secretary of the Air Force sent Gibbons the second volume of *The Roswell Report: Case Closed*, to be released on the following Tuesday.[^43] ### Pocantico Workshop, 1997 In December 1996, in Sturrock's words in the introduction to the published proceedings, "Mr. Laurance S. Rockefeller, Chairman of the LSR Fund, invited me to review with him the status of our understanding of the problem posed by UFO reports." Rockefeller, Diamond and Sturrock conceived a workshop; Sturrock submitted a proposal to the LSR Fund in February 1997 with administrative support from the Society for Scientific Exploration, and "the necessary funds were transferred from the Fund to the Society." The workshop met at the Pocantico Conference Center at Tarrytown, New York, from September 29 to October 4, 1997, and Sturrock thanked Rockefeller "for his interest in and support of this project" and Diamond and Charles Tolbert for administrative support.[^44] ### Rockefeller Funds The Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund of New York, which received its Internal Revenue Service ruling in June 2006, reported assets of 35,533,812 dollars for 2023. The Fund for UFO Research of Fairfax, Virginia, to which the letters of 1994 and 1996 refer, has been tax-exempt since April 1982.[^13] [^1]: Rockefeller Archive Center, "Laurance S. Rockefeller," biography, https://rockarch.org/resources/about-the-rockefellers/laurance-s-rockefeller/ (birth, death, education, marriage, Navy service, family office, Venrock from August 1969, Jackson Hole Preserve, American Conservation Association, Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, Fund presidency and chairmanship 1958 to 1980, Sloan-Kettering, Sloan Foundation, Zoological Society). [^2]: Rockefeller Archive Center, "John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1874-1960," biography (children of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller), https://rockarch.org/resources/about-the-rockefellers/john-d-rockefeller-jr/. [^3]: W. David Lewis, "A Man Born Out of Season: Eddie Rickenbacker, Eastern Airlines, and the Civil Aeronautics Board," *Business and Economic History* 25, no. 1 (Fall 1996), pp. 157-163, https://thebhc.org/sites/default/files/beh/BEHprint/v025n1/p0154-p0164.pdf. [^4]: Peter O. Crisp, "Venture Capital Greats: A Conversation with Peter O. Crisp," interviewed by Carole Kolker, October 21, 2008, National Venture Capital Association Venture Capital Oral History Project, pp. 8, 24-28, 38 and 45-47, https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/vcg-crisp.pdf. [^5]: "Richard Leghorn, 98, pioneer of Cold War aerial espionage photography," *Boston Globe*, February 5, 2018, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2018/02/05/richard-leghorn-pioneer-cold-war-aerial-espionage-photography/C6PlYAATiFZNKx2P1La8JJ/story.html. [^6]: Kenneth E. Greer, "Corona," *Studies in Intelligence*, Supplement, 17 (Spring 1973), pp. 1-37, reproduced in Kevin C. Ruffner, ed., *CORONA: America's First Satellite Program* (Washington: Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1995), https://www.cia.gov/static/Corona-Between-the-Sun-and-the-Earth.pdf. [^7]: Rockefeller Brothers Fund, "In Depth: The Special Studies Project," Wayback Machine capture of October 5, 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20211005203914/https://www.rbf.org/about/our-history/timeline/special-studies-project/in-depth. [^8]: Rockefeller Brothers Fund, *Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports* (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961), list of the Special Studies Project planning committee and introduction by Panel II, https://archive.org/details/prospect-for-america-the-rockefeller-panel-reports-rockefeller-brothers-fund-1961. [^9]: Allen W. Dulles to Laurance S. Rockefeller, September 16, 1960, CIA-RDP80B01676R003700050029-8, and the advance copy of Special Studies Project report VI, *The Power of the Democratic Idea*, with release notice, CIA-RDP80B01676R003700050028-9, CIA Reading Room, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003700050029-8 and https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003700050028-9. [^10]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to Allen W. Dulles, February 20, 1961, and Dulles to Rockefeller, March 1, 1961, CIA-RDP80B01676R003500230010-0, CIA Reading Room, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003500230010-0. [^11]: U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, news release, "Secretary Udall Pledges Support of ORRRC Proposals," February 1, 1962, https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/historic-news-releases/1962/19620201B.PDF. [^12]: National Park Service, *Caneel Bay Area Redevelopment and Management Environmental Assessment*, Virgin Islands National Park (January 2023), chapter 1, https://npshistory.com/publications/viis/caneel-bay-redev-mgt-ea-2023.pdf. [^13]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization records for Jackson Hole Preserve Inc (EIN 13-1813818), Laurance S Rockefeller Fund (EIN 20-4192256) and Fund For UFO Research (EIN 52-1164176), https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/131813818.json, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/204192256.json and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/521164176.json. [^14]: Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, press release, "Princeton's PEAR Laboratory to Close," February 10, 2007, http://pearlab.icrl.org/press-statement.html. [^15]: John E. Mack Institute, "History," https://johnemackinstitute.org/history/, and "Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER)," http://johnemackinstitute.org/2003/01/program-for-extraordinary-experience-research-peer/. [^16]: C. B. Scott Jones, Human Potential Foundation, to John H. Gibbons, February 17, 1994, with Gibbons's handwritten note dated 2/24/94, Office of Science and Technology Policy file, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-17-94.htm. [^17]: John H. Gibbons, memorandum for the President, "Inquiry from Laurance Rockefeller," August 4, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-4-95.htm. [^18]: Grant Cameron, "Extraterrestrial Politics in the Clinton White House (1993-2001) and the Laurance Rockefeller Initiative," introduction and notes iii and xiii, http://www.x-ppac.org/OSTP.html. The index of the scanned documents is at http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller_Initiative_Documents.htm. [^19]: Henry L. Diamond, memorandum to John H. Gibbons, attention Mike Kowalok, "Request for Meeting with Dr. Gibbons for Laurance S. Rockefeller, April 12 or 13, 1993," March 29, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-3-29-93.htm. [^20]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, April 21, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-4-21-93.htm. [^21]: John H. Gibbons, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, to C. B. Scott Jones, May 26, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-5-26-93.htm. [^22]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to Billy Graham, May 7, 1993, and Graham to Rockefeller, May 20, 1993, attached to Rockefeller's fax to Gibbons of August 23, 1995, with the undated draft letter to President Clinton, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-23-95.htm. [^23]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, August 4, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-4-93.htm. [^24]: Paradigm Research Group, "September 14-15, 1993 Meeting at Rockefeller's JY Ranch in Wyoming," photograph and caption, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/9-14-93_Meeting.htm. [^25]: Henry L. Diamond, Beveridge and Diamond, P.C., memorandum to Sue Bachtel, November 12, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-11-12-93.htm. [^26]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, February 14, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-14-94.htm. [^27]: Sheila E. Widnall, Secretary of the Air Force, memorandum for John H. Gibbons, "UFO Research," May 24, 1994, with Gibbons's handwritten note, and the enclosed memorandum for the Secretary of the Air Force from SAF/AAZ, "Status Report on Search Efforts Regarding 'the Roswell Incident,'" May 20, 1994, p. 1, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-5-24-94.htm (the memorandum of May 24 is listed among the enclosures to Gibbons's letter to the General Accounting Office of April 26, 1995). [^28]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, June 1, 1994, with the attached letter from Melvin R. Laird to Rockefeller, May 9, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-6-1-94.htm. [^29]: Anne Bartley, memorandum for Jack Gibbons, "Laurance S. Rockefeller Interest in Extraterrestrial Intelligence," July 27, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-7-27-94.htm. [^30]: C. B. Scott Jones, Human Potential Foundation, to John H. Gibbons, August 11, 1994, pp. 1-2, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-11-94.htm. [^31]: U.S. General Accounting Office, General Government Division, to John H. Gibbons, April 12, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-4-12-95.htm; John H. Gibbons to William Hunt, Director, Federal Management Issues, U.S. General Accounting Office, April 26, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-4-26-95.htm. [^32]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, September 5, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-9-5-94.htm, and December 9, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-12-9-94.htm. [^33]: C. B. Scott Jones to John H. Gibbons, February 9, 1995, pp. 1-2, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-9-95.htm. [^34]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, April 11, 1995 (the scan is filed under 4-11-94 and the letter is dated April 11, 1995), http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-4-11-94.htm. [^35]: Tanya M. Felder, OSTP electronic message to Susanne Bachtel, Barbara A. Ferguson and Holly L. Gwin, "GAO Report on UFOs," June 9, 1995, with handwritten reply of June 12, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-6-9-95.htm. [^36]: "Clintons to Vacation in Wyoming Mountains," *Spokesman-Review*, August 15, 1995, https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/aug/15/clintons-to-vacation-in-wyoming-mountains/; William J. Clinton Presidential Library, "White House Photos - Laurance Rockefeller - Philanthropist," finding aid 2006-0546-F (contact sheet book 312, frame P31195, August 21, 1995), https://www.clintonlibrary.gov/research/archives/finding-aids/white-house-photos-laurance-rockefeller-philanthropist. [^37]: C. B. Scott Jones, Human Potential Foundation, to Representative Steven Schiff, August 17, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-17-95.htm. [^38]: Henry L. Diamond to John H. Gibbons, November 1, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-11-1-95.htm, and November 8, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-11-8-95.htm. [^39]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, February 5, 1996, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-5-96.htm. [^40]: Sheila E. Widnall, Secretary of the Air Force, to John H. Gibbons, February 27, 1996, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-27-96.htm; Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, February 29, 1996, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-29-96.htm. [^41]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, October 17, 1996, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-10-17-96.htm. [^42]: Bruce Maccabee to John H. Gibbons, January 2, 1997, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-1-2-97.htm. [^43]: Secretary of the Air Force to John H. Gibbons, June 20, 1997, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-6-20-97.htm. [^44]: Peter A. Sturrock et al., "Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports: The Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Pocantico Conference Center, Tarrytown, New York, September 29 - October 4, 1997," *Journal of Scientific Exploration* 12, no. 2 (1998), pp. 179-229, introduction as reproduced at http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc535.htm.