Winthrop Rockefeller: a Life of Change (c)

Book excerpt: Winthrop Rockefeller was a visionary whose enduring legacy - as this book persuasively argues - was the creation of a new social, political, and economic climate in Arkansas, one that allowed its citizens to become active participants in their communities and to overcome the inferiority complex deeply ingrained in the state's culture. Passionately committed to strengthening race relations and to improving access to education and the arts, Rockefeller was never one simply to write a check. Rather, he helped his fellow citizens turn their ideas into plans and then provided them with the resources to put their plans into action.