A new exhibit has opened at West Virginia University chronicling the legacy of former Senator Jay Rockefeller.
The West Virginia and Regional History Center opened the Rockefeller exhibit Tuesday. Titled, ‘Jay Rockefeller: A Legacy of Leadership,’ it’s located in Wise Library’s Rockefeller Gallery on the Morgantown campus of West Virginia University. Much of the content is also available online.
The exhibit includes memorabilia from Senator Rockefeller’s early years in West Virginia, his election to the United States Senate, and some of his many accomplishments during his long career as a U.S. senator.
Also available are the Rockefeller Legacy Memos, a collection of 12 memos detailing the senator’s work in health care reform; West Virginia’s jobs, economy and industry; children, families and education; and veterans’ affairs.
West Virginia’s former Democratic U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller has announced his pick for the next President of the United States.
Rockefeller announced his endorsement of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in an editorial printed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
In it, Rockefeller recounts Clinton’s work as First Lady to get the Miners Act pushed through Congress in 1992. The legislation protected the healthcare and pension benefits of retired miners.
Rockefeller also pointed to Clinton’s $30 billion proposal titled the Plan for Revitalizing Coal Communities that strengthens benefits for black lung patients and provides additional funding for schools in coal towns, among other things.
Clinton was criticized in recent months for a comment during a town hall in Ohio during which she said her energy plans were going to “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” Clinton later apologized for the comment.
West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has also endorsed Clinton, lending his support quickly after she announced her candidacy last year.
Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has not yet endorsed a candidate.
Former U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller says whether a Republican or Democrat wins the White House won’t make a difference in the big picture of West Virginia’s hurting coal industry.
The Democrat spoke Friday at the National Energy Conference at West Virginia University’s College of Law. The event discussed the industry’s issues and options to move the struggling state forward.
Rockefeller said a Republican president may rein in the Environmental Protection Agency a little bit, but many policies will be upheld by courts.
Rockefeller called for people to stop listening only to what they agree with ideologically. He said people have lined up on sides this presidential election, and he “simply can’t stand it.”
Rockefeller called for West Virginians to be hopeful, not grim, in trying to transition their economy.
Fayette County Democrats want state Democratic Party Chairman Larry Puccio to resign.
After a rough election for Democrats in West Virginia and nationwide, the Fayette County Democratic Executive Committee has passed a resolution seeking Puccio’s resignation.
It says the county party believes Puccio provided no leadership or strategy to avoid historic losses.
Democrats lost retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s seat to GOP Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito. A three-seat sweep will give Republicans every U.S. House seat in the state for the first time since 1921.
Sen. Joe Manchin will be West Virginia’s lone congressional Democrat.
Republicans will control the Legislature for the first time in more than eight decades.
Puccio says it’s standard for elected officials not to have some people’s support. He says he’ll continue working hard for West Virginia.
Some 2,000 boxes of documents, 500 gigabytes of data and hundreds of pieces of memorabilia now have a new home at West Virginia University after President E. Gordon Gee and Senator Jay Rockefeller announced Saturday the university’s library will serve as Rockefeller’s official Senatorial archive.
During a presentation in the Wise Library on the university’s main campus, Gee also announced the creation of school in the Senator’s namesake. The political science program has separated from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and will join with a policy institute that’s in the works to create the John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics.
“[The school] is going to cover a broad range of study. It’s going to do it openly, honestly and absolutely fearlessly. Some of it will be controversial and so be it,” Rockefeller said.
Credit Ashton Marra / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A view of the room in WVU’s Wise Library.
The senator said he plans to take an active role in shaping the education students of the school will receive, pushing the focus toward policy and public service.
“My vision, and one that President Gee and WVU shares,” Rockefeller said Saturday, “is a place that ignites the embers of service and scholarship in scores of young men and women for years and years to come, setting them on a path to utterly transforming West Virginia and maybe just a little bit the world.”
According to Dr. Scott Crichlow, who will lead the new school, the university hopes to have the policy institute in place by the summer of 2015.
Credit Ashton Marra / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Sen. Rockefeller spoke with reporters after the announcement Saturday.
As for the photos, awards, pottery and art the Rockefeller’s donated, many pieces are currently on display in a gallery in the Wise Library. The documents are in the process of being transferred to the school and will be available for study by students, faculty and, most importantly to the senator, the public.
“I hope when people read these volumes, they will better understand both the legislative issues, but also me,” Rockefeller said, :and why it is I fought so hard and continued to and will ever continue for those least able to fight for themselves.”
Rockefeller announced his retirement in January 2013. A transplant who originally came to the state as a VISTA volunteer, the senator also pledged to stay in West Virginia.
“West Virginia is where I found my life’s purpose, my spiritual calling,” he said, “and it is in West Virginia that I hope my legacy will be remembered and my journey as a public servant understood.”
