I enjoyed a recent PBS "American Experience" episode featuring John D. Rockefeller. I was interested to see where Nelson Rockefeller fit into the family tree (grandson to John D.).
It was a cold, wet May morning in 1963 when I had a chance to shake Nelson Rockefeller's hand and have any previous impression of a wealthy Easterner, presumed detached from the common man, totally dismissed.
I was a 17-year-old in the Duluth East High School band, and by some authority we were chosen to welcome Nelson Rockefeller when he arrived at the Duluth airport. In 1963, he was a frontrunner for the 1964 presidential race, and I suppose that had something to do with coming here.
There were no Jetways in 1963, so there was a human one of sorts with Duluth city and political dignitaries forming one side and we band members the other. The plane landed and Nelson Rockefeller appeared at the door with a big wave of one hand and the other clutching several manila files. The band struck up "Muskrat Ramble." He quickly looked at the line of dignitaries and then at us, cold and wet in our red and grey band uniforms. Without a second look at the dignitaries, he ran over to us and began to warmly greet us and thank us. This went on for a minute or two.
This memory has stayed with me for 50 years because I learned at a young age that impressions formed of people we have yet to meet can be totally wrong. The importance Nelson Rockefeller gave to thanking and greeting our band showed me this man's character was far more defined by his compassion than by the wealth of his family.
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Paul von Goertz
Knife River
