Suzanne Higgins Published

Rockefeller Says Personal Sacrifices Part of Public Service

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Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who announced Saturday the John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics at West Virginia University, will retire at the end of the year after 30 years in the U.S. Senate.

Rockefeller calls public life “all consuming if you go after it like you should.”

He says personal time with family, especially his children, has been the price he’s paid in public service, and he plans to make up for it in retirement.

Rockefeller came to the Mountain State in 1964 as a VISTA volunteer.  After two years in Emmons, WV, he was elected into the WV House of Delegates. He then served as Secretary of State, President of West Virginia Wesleyan College, two terms as Governor, and 5 terms in the U.S. Senate.

His only political defeat came in 1972, against former governor Arch Moore, in a bid for the governor’s office.