Jay Rockefeller, the oil fortune heir who broke with his family's Republican tradition and built a decades-long political career as a West Virginia Democrat, has died. He was 89.
The former governor and five-term U.S. senator died Thursday night at his Washington home, The Associated Press reported, citing Mary Stewart, vice president for external affairs at WETA. His wife, Sharon, serves as the public broadcasting station's president and CEO.
Rockefeller spent decades representing one of America's poorest states while drawing on a fortune rooted in one of its wealthiest families. His political rise took him from the West Virginia House of Delegates to the governor's mansion and, eventually, 30 years in the Senate.
He poured millions of dollars of his own money into his campaigns, making no apologies for using an inherited fortune estimated at $150 million. He won five Senate terms before retiring in 2015.
"I could not imagine a more rewarding career," Rockefeller said upon his retirement.
His climb suffered its biggest setback in 1972, when Republican Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. defeated him in the governor's race. It was Rockefeller's only election loss.
Rather than leave West Virginia, Rockefeller stayed, a decision he later called the most important of his career. In 1973, he became president of West Virginia Wesleyan College, the first person without a theological degree to hold the position.
The job helped him win over skeptics. He also changed his position on strip mining, embracing the practice in a state heavily dependent on coal.
Rockefeller defeated Republican Cecil Underwood in a landslide in the 1976 governor's race, then beat Moore in a 1980 rematch.
As governor, he pushed improvements to roads, bridges, sewers and other infrastructure, calling them "not very sexy things, I grant you but very, very necessary in West Virginia."
He won his first Senate race in 1984, succeeding retiring Democratic Sen. Jennings Randolph even as President Ronald Reagan cruised to a landslide reelection victory.
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Thirty years later, Moore's daughter, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, won the Senate seat Rockefeller was leaving.
Born John D. Rockefeller IV in New York City, he was the great-grandson of Standard Oil Co. founder John D. Rockefeller, who died a month before his birth.
His father, John D. Rockefeller III, was a philanthropist. His uncles included Republican Govs. Nelson Rockefeller of New York and Winthrop Rockefeller of Arkansas, along with Chase Manhattan Bank chief David Rockefeller.
Jay Rockefeller's own political path began far from the family's business and Republican circles.
He arrived in the West Virginia mining community of Emmons in 1964, at age 27, to work in an anti-poverty program. What he expected to be a brief stay became the foundation of his political career.
"It explains every policy I pursued and every vote I have cast. It was where my beliefs were bolted down, and where my passions met my principles," he said in his Dec. 4, 2014, Senate farewell speech.
Rockefeller won election to the House of Delegates as a Democrat in 1966 and later served as secretary of state. Money and persistent campaigning helped him overcome suspicions that the wealthy newcomer was using West Virginia to advance his political ambitions.
In Washington, Rockefeller and his wife, the daughter of former Republican Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois, purchased a multimillion-dollar estate and moved comfortably through the capital's social circles.
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