John Davison Rockefeller

約翰·戴維森·洛剋菲勒（英語：John Davison Rockefeller，1839年7月8日－1937年5月23日），美國實業傢，慈善傢，因革新了石油工業和塑造了慈善事業現代化結構而聞名。1870年創立標準石油，在全盛期壟斷了全美90%的石油市場，成為歷史上的第一位億萬富豪與全球首富。1914年巔峰時，其財富總值達到美國GDP的2.4%(9億美元，美國GDP365億美元)，折合今日之4000億美元以上，普遍被視為西方世界史上首富。

他受到記者與各種輿論的攻擊，標準石油最後被判决違反反托拉斯法並在1911年被拆分為34傢公司（事實上，反托拉斯法正是針對標準石油而製定的）。規模之巨大，其後繼企業之一埃剋森美孚在百年後的今天仍是全美第2大企業。

另一方面，洛剋菲勒在人生的後40年致力於慈善事業，主要是教育和醫藥領域，而在1897年結束對標準石油的直接管理。他出資成立洛剋菲勒研究所資助醫學研究，主要貢獻包括；成立約翰霍普金斯公共衛生學院、哈佛大學公共衛生學院、北京協和醫學院，根除北美鈎蟲和黃熱病，贊助野口英世的梅毒病原體研究，贊助亞歷山大·弗萊明的青黴素研究。他也對黑人族群特別關照，斥巨資提升黑人教育。他是虔誠的北浸禮會教友，並支持了很多教會背景的機構。

今天的兩所美國頂尖大學：芝加哥大學與洛剋菲勒大學都是他創辦的。現今的紐約市也有許多洛剋菲勒傢族出資建立的地標，如聯合國總部大樓、洛剋菲勒中心等等。

洛剋菲勒堅信他人生的目的是“盡力地賺錢，盡力地存錢，盡力地捐錢”。他以許多負面手段成為了空前絶後的巨富，但他私生活嚴謹，終身不煙不酒，一生勤儉自持，在晚年將大部分財産捐出資助慈善事業，開美國富豪行善之先河，給今天如比爾·蓋茨與沃倫·巴菲特等富豪寫下了先例，成為美國近代史上最富傳奇色彩與爭議性的人物之一。

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time, and the richest person in modern history.

Rockefeller was born into a large family in upstate New York that moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897, and remained its largest shareholder.

Rockefeller's wealth soared as kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, and he became the richest person in the country, controlling 90% of all oil in the United States at his peak.^[c] Oil was used throughout the country as a light source until the introduction of electricity, and as a fuel after the invention of the automobile. Furthermore, Rockefeller gained enormous influence over the railroad industry which transported his oil around the country. Standard Oil was the first great business trust in the United States. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and, through corporate and technological innovations, was instrumental in both widely disseminating and drastically reducing the production cost of oil. His company and business practices came under criticism, particularly in the writings of author Ida Tarbell.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil must be dismantled for violation of federal antitrust laws. It was broken up into 34 separate entities, which included companies that became ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, and others—some of which still have the highest level of revenue in the world.

In the end it turned out that the individual segments of the company were worth more than the entire company was when it was one entity — the sum of the parts were worth more than the whole – as shares of these doubled and tripled in value in their early years. Consequently, Rockefeller became the country's first billionaire, with a fortune worth nearly 2% of the national economy. His peak net worth was estimated at US$418 billion (in 2019 dollars; inflation-adjusted) in 1913.^[d] His personal wealth was estimated at $900 million at the time in 1913, which was almost 3% of the US GDP of $39.1 billion that year.

Rockefeller spent much of the last 40 years of his life in retirement at his estate in Westchester County, New York, defining the structure of modern philanthropy, along with other key industrialists such as steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. His fortune was mainly used to create the modern systematic approach of targeted philanthropy through the creation of foundations that had a major effect on medicine, education, and scientific research. His foundations pioneered developments in medical research and were instrumental in the near-eradication of hookworm and yellow fever in the United States.

Rockefeller was also the founder of the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University and funded the establishment of Central Philippine University in the Philippines. He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church-based institutions. He adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life. For advice, he relied closely on his wife Laura Spelman Rockefeller with whom he had five children. He was a faithful congregant of the Erie Street Baptist Mission Church, taught Sunday school, and served as a trustee, clerk, and occasional janitor. Religion was a guiding force throughout his life and he believed it to be the source of his success. Rockefeller was also considered a supporter of capitalism based on a perspective of social Darwinism, and he was quoted often as saying, "The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest".