David Kaiser (philanthropist)

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}{{Infobox person

| name = David Kaiser

| birth_name = David Walter Kaiser

| birth_date = {{birth date|1969|7|27}}

| birth_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2020|07|15|1969|07|27|mf=yes}}

| death_place = Mount Desert Island, Maine, U.S.

| education = Columbia University (BA)

| occupation = philanthropist, activist

| employer =

| known_for = president of the Rockefeller Family Fund, activism against ExxonMobil

| spouse = Rosemary Corbett

| children =

| parents = Neva Rockefeller Goodwin
Walter J. Kaiser

| relatives = Bruce Mazlish (stepfather)

| family = See Rockefeller family

}}

David Walter Kaiser (July 27, 1969 – July 15, 2020) was an American philanthropist and president of the Rockefeller Family Fund, known for his environmental activism.{{Cite web|last=Wiedeman|first=Reeves|date=January 7, 2018|title=The Rockefellers vs. Exxon, the Company That Made Them the Rockefellers|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/01/the-rockefellers-vs-exxon.html|access-date=July 29, 2020|website=Intelligencer}} He was a grandson of David Rockefeller, the great grandson of American financer John D. Rockefeller Jr. and great-great-grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller.{{Cite news|last=Schwartz|first=John|date=July 16, 2020|title=David Kaiser, Rockefeller Heir Who Fought Exxon Mobil, Dies at 50|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/business/energy-environment/david-kaiser-dead.html|access-date=July 27, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}

Early life and education

Kaiser was born on July 27, 1969, in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Neva Rockefeller Goodwin and Walter Kaiser. His mother is a daughter of David Rockefeller and a great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller. She is the director of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University and a distinguished fellow at Boston University.{{Cite web|title=Neva Rockefeller Goodwin|url=https://philanthropyforum.org/people/neva-rockefeller-goodwin/|access-date=July 27, 2020|website=Global Philanthropy Forum}}{{Cite web|title=Neva R. Goodwin {{!}} Economics in Context Initiative|url=https://www.bu.edu/eci/profile/neva-r-goodwin/|access-date=July 27, 2020|website=Boston University}} His father Walter Kaiser, who died in 2016, was a professor of English and comparative literature at Harvard University as well as the director of Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence.{{Cite web|date=January 12, 2016|title=Walter Kaiser dies|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/01/walter-kaiser-dies/|access-date=July 27, 2020|website=Harvard Gazette}} In 1981, his mother divorced Kaiser and remarried MIT historian Bruce Mazlish.{{Cite news|last=Vitello|first=Paul|date=2016-11-30|title=Bruce Mazlish, Who Fused Psychoanalysis and History in His Books, Dies at 93|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/books/bruce-mazlish-richard-nixon.html|access-date=2021-08-21|issn=0362-4331}}

He graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1991 with a degree in American history.{{Cite news|title=Columbia Daily Spectator 8 October 1990 — Columbia Spectator|url=http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19901008-01.2.19&srpos=3&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22david+Kaiser%22------|access-date=July 27, 2020|newspaper=Columbia Spectator}}

Career

Kaiser served as president of the Rockefeller Family Fund from 2015 to 2019.{{Cite web|title=Rockefeller Family Fund|url=https://www.rffund.org/|access-date=July 28, 2020|website=Rockefeller Family Fund}}{{Cite web|title=Winrock International - Winrock Mourns the Passing of David W. Kaiser (1969-2020)|url=https://www.winrock.org/winrock-mourns-the-passing-of-david-w-kaiser-1969-2020/|access-date=July 28, 2020|website=Winrock International|date=July 21, 2020 }} During his tenure as president, he gained wide attention for funding the investigation of Los Angeles Times and InsideClimate News into ExxonMobil's environmental malpractices and leading the family fund to divest from fossil fuels.{{Cite web|title=RFF'S DECISION TO DIVEST|url=https://www.rffund.org/divestment|access-date=July 28, 2020|website=Rockefeller Family Fund}}{{Cite web|last=Jerving|first=Sarah|date=October 9, 2015|title=What Exxon knew about the Earth's melting Arctic|url=https://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/|access-date=July 28, 2020|website=Los Angeles Times}}{{Cite web|date=September 15, 2015|title=Exxon: The Road Not Taken|url=http://insideclimatenews.org/content/exxon-the-road-not-taken|access-date=July 28, 2020|website=InsideClimate News}} Activist groups, funded by the foundation, also kicked off a campaign #ExxonKnew, accusing that ExxonMobil has knowingly downplayed the threat of climate change.{{Cite news|last=Schwartz|first=John|date=November 21, 2016|title=Exxon Mobil Accuses the Rockefellers of a Climate Conspiracynewspaper=The New York Times|work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/science/exxon-mobil-rockefellers-climate-change.html|access-date=July 28, 2020|issn=0362-4331}} He laid out his case against the company, detailing its practices of financing climate contrarianism and driving partisanship on the issue, in a two-part essay published in The New York Review of Books, where he once worked as an editorial assistant.{{Cite news|last1=Wasserman|first1=Lee|last2=Kaiser|first2=David|date=December 8, 2016|title=The Rockefeller Family Fund vs. Exxon|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/08/the-rockefeller-family-fund-vs-exxon/|access-date=July 28, 2020|issn=0028-7504}}

With the family's encouragement and using the evidence provided by the family-funded investigations, a number of states, cities, and individuals sued ExxonMobil for its environmental practices.{{Cite news|last=Schwartz|first=John|date=August 10, 2017|title=Students, Cities and States Take the Climate Fight to Court|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/climate/climate-change-lawsuits-courts.html|access-date=July 28, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|last1=Gillis|first1=Justin|last2=Krauss|first2=Clifford|date=November 5, 2015|title=Exxon Mobil Investigated for Possible Climate Change Lies by New York Attorney General|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/science/exxon-mobil-under-investigation-in-new-york-over-climate-statements.html|access-date=July 28, 2020|issn=0362-4331}} The New York Times wrote that John Passacantando, a philanthropy consultant and climate activist, said in an interview that Kaiser had "done more to change the landscape in the climate fight than anything I have seen in 30 years."

Kaiser was also the chairman of Just Detention International from 2007 to 2019, an advocacy group dedicated to end sexual abuse in prison.{{Cite web|title=Our Mission|url=https://justdetention.org/who-we-are/our-mission/|access-date=July 28, 2020|website=Just Detention International}}{{Cite web|title=JDI Mourns the Passing of David Kaiser|url=https://justdetention.org/jdi-mourns-the-passing-of-david-kaiser/|access-date=July 28, 2020|website=Just Detention International}} He also served on the board of Winrock International, founded by his granduncles Winthrop Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller III, from 2004 to 2012.

Personal life

Kaiser died of brain cancer on July 15, 2020, at his family home on Mount Desert Island, Maine. He is survived by his wife, Rosemary Corbett, whom he married in 2012, and his sister, Miranda Kaiser, who became president of the Rockefeller Family Fund in 2019.{{Cite news|last=Schudel|first=Matt|date=July 21, 2020|title=David Kaiser, Rockefeller heir who challenged Exxon, dies at 50|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/david-kaiser-rockefeller-heir-who-challenged-exxon-dies-at-50/2020/07/19/40b635a4-c91f-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html|access-date=July 27, 2020}}