In Dedication — Blanchette Ferry Hooker Rockefeller
Blanchette Ferry Hooker Rockefeller was born in New York City on October 2, 1909. She graduated from Vassar College in 1931 with a Bachelor’s Degree in music, and married John D. Rockefeller III the following year.
During her lifetime she made immense contributions to community service, the arts and education in New York City and instilled those same values in her children. She is remembered for her gifts of grace, beauty, and warmth. Until afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease in her final years, she lived a long life of vitality and accomplishment.
On November 29, 1992, at the age of 83, Blanchette Rockefeller died of pneumonia with complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Profoundly affected, her son, U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV wrote:
“Now this must be said. My mother’s last years were tortured, deeply painful to her children and friends, and I believe, profoundly humiliating to her, stripping her of her rightful self. Let no one, for a single moment think that Alzheimer’s disease is anything but a dreadful, wicked inexorable nightmare. That cursed aliment— its relentless march— diminished her everyday, for her last eight years.”
In keeping with her legacy of community service, Senator Rockefeller and his family provided the funding necessary to launch the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute… an Institute whose goal is to make a unique contribution to critical science and research by bringing together intellectual and financial resources to accelerate the research and develop the pathways necessary to expedite the translation of discoveries to globally available treatments. Senator Rockefeller established the Institute with these words:
“After watching my mother suffer from the agony of Alzheimer’s disease, I am determined to work to spare others from this and other illnesses that afflict the mind. Let us light a candle of hope through neurosciences research so we can find a way of preserving the vitality and dignity so important to all people.”
— John D. Rockefeller IV