John Davison Rockefeller (8 July 1839, Richford, new York — may 23, 1937, Ormond beach, Florida) is an American entrepreneur and multimillionaire. John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839 on a farm in Richford (new York). He was a hardworking, purposeful and pious, for which the partners called him "the devil." In 1853, the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland, and two years later he settled as a clerk in the firm "Hut tuttle" , engaged in real estate and shipping. Thanks to the ability to mathematics, he was promoted to the post of accountant. But this was his first and last employment. In 18 years John Rockefeller became the Junior partner of the merchant Maurice Clark. Trading house "Clark and Rochester" traded in hay, grain, meat and other goods. In 1863, Rockefeller and his partners, built his first oil refinery near Cleveland. He married Laura Celestine Spelman, whom he met while still a student. Devout, like her husband, the teacher, Laura Spelman, however, had a practical mind. Rockefeller once said: "Without her advice I would have remained poor". In 1870 he established the standard oil . Together with his friend and business partner of Henry Flagler, he began to collect the scattered oil and petrochemical enterprises in one powerful oil trust. Competitors could not resist him, Rockefeller had put them before a choice: merge with him, or ruin. By means of backstage machinations in the style of "cloak and sword" and bribing politicians Rockefeller partners gathered under the auspices of the "standard oil" almost all the major oil companies. The company controlled 95 % of oil production of America. In 1890 was passed the Sherman antitrust Act, aimed at combating monopolies. Until 1911, Rockefeller and his partners were able to circumvent this law, but then "standard oil" was divided into thirty-four companies (almost all of today's major U.S. oil companies are counting their history from the "standard oil"). The name Rockefeller has become a symbol of wealth, it has become a household name. He had a Villa and a plot of land of 700 acres on the outskirts of Cleveland, and houses in the States of new York, Florida, Maine personal Playground the game of Golf in new Jersey. But most of all he loved the Villa, "Pocantico hills" near new York.Rockefeller was proud of his generosity. Considering himself a businessman, a Christian, a child he counted 10% of their income to the Church. In 1905 this "ten" was 100 million $.In 1897, Rockefeller gradually transferring management functions, "standard oil" most capable partners, and himself increasingly involved in charity work. Thanks to him in 1892 was founded the University of Chicago, in 1901, Medical Institute named after Rockefeller (later the University named Rockefeller) , a year later — the General education Board in 1913 — the Rockefeller Foundation. Maintaining its reputation as a generous man, John D. Rockefeller, in fact, remained a cruel and stingy. He far outlived the times of struggle around the "standard oil" . At the time of his death at the age of 98 years, John was much more well-known as a philanthropist than as a treacherous and cruel bizmesmen. At the end of his life Rockefeller gave away to half a billion dollars, his only son John D. Rockefeller Jr. inherited 460 million. He also spent about half a billion to charity, and also gave money for the construction of Rockefeller Center for communication industry in new York and donated 9 million for the construction of the UN building (thanks to his assistance, the headquarters of the UN was built in new York and not in any other city in the world) . With all this six children he left 240 million. Rockefeller Jr. built the famous skyscraper "Empire state building" .Five grandsons of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. continued the tradition of philanthropy and involvement in politics. The most famous of these was Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President of the United States in 1974-1977.