David Rockerfeller

[Ed Jewett]

1) I grew up in a small town in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, out at the base on Mount Greylock, where there was a 2,200-acre 'farm' (Mount Hope Farm) owned by E. Parmalee Prentice (a husbandry man and expert in genetics) who was married to one of the daughters of John D. There, they raised the best chickens, sheep for wool, and experimented in cows. The wool, honey and other products were sold at a store; the blankets were to die for (or maybe to dye for). The "help" either stayed in an elegant hotel-like facility 'on campus' or in homes that ringed the estate. Mrs. Prentice (after her husband died) would tour the estate in one of her open phaetons (there were 12-14 of them in the garage) when she stayed there each year during the month of June. The place was always well-manicured and perfectly landscaped. The mansion features 87 rooms, a delightful and huge garden, an Olympic-sized swimming pool on the second floor, that 12-14 bay garage, and more. The grounds were traversed on a paved parkway. The main gate featured two giant status of lions. The cow barn had marble flooring and gold fixtures for the cows to drink out of and was called 'the million dollar cow barn'. When Mrs. Prentice passed away, the place was willed to the Lenox Hill Hospital, the chicken operation was sold off to Arbor Acres, the maple syrup operation was closed, the outlying parcels were sold off as private houses, and the cars were sold. The hospital eventually gifted the place to Williams College which used the mansion as a conference center and housed students at its summer institutes in the guest quarters. the core of the estate, the plateau atop Deer Ridge, was cut up into large lots and transformed into elegant houses sold to key Williams alumni (one of them was rumored to have been Fay Vincent).

#2) When my athletically-active daughter (an elemetary school teacher who played in women's pro fastpitch softball) was invited to attend the annual banquet of the Women's Sports Foundation in New York City post 9/11, she asked me to drive her down and back so she could still manage to get some sleep, change into her gown, change out of her gown, get some more sleep, and still be in the classroom the next day. I agreed; we rented a hotel room off the southwest corner of Central Park, she grabbed a cab to the banquet, and I went walkabout. I toured Columbus Square, that corner of the park, and then turned back downtown to find a Starbucks. Eventually, I found my way to a place I recognized as Rockefeller Center which was being re-cast as the TV studio for election coverage of the 2004 elections. The famous skating rink had been re-'painted' with a giant map of the US with each state in outline, and the TV broadcaster's booths were arranged around the mezzanine level, and the place was slathered in bunting and other thematic stuff. I leaned over the rails at street level to observe and the fellow at the rail next to me struck up a conversation. It went well, he wanted my opinion on the decor and the election, and he offered to buy me a drink. I still had time to kill and so we went downstairs to the bar whose windows looked out on to the rink. Turns out he was the interior decorator for the Rockefeller Center; he lived out on Long Island and in Florida in Palm Beach. The discussion of the election turned towards 9/11; I told him I thought it was an inside job, and he told me it that that was openly discussed and acknowledged inside the Rockefeller Center that day.