1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [109]
Robinson, Jackie (1919–1972) On April 15, 1947, Robinson walked onto Ebbets Field as a Brooklyn Dodger, the first black man to play in Major League baseball. He had been signed by Dodgers president and manager Branch Rickey and endured racial slurs and threats of violence to compile an extraordinary record as an infielder and outfielder from 1947 through 1956. Playing offense, he led the National League in stolen bases and won the 1949 batting championship with a .342 average.
Rockefeller, John D. (1839–1937) Rockefeller got into the oil business in 1863 and founded Standard Oil in 1870. He rapidly built the company into the first great U.S. business “trust” by buying out all competitors and vertically integrating all aspects of the oil business, from drilling, to refining, to transporting, to marketing. Rockefeller’s aggressive business practices provoked a federal response in the form of the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890). Ruthless as a capitalist, Rockefeller was also one of the world’s great philanthropists, contributing some $500 million to create the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other charitable institutions.
Rockefeller, Nelson (1908–1979) From the late 1950s through much of the 1970s, Rockefeller was the embodiment of the liberal wing of the Republican Party and tried to be a moderating and unifying force in the nation’s often divisive politics. He failed in three bids to secure the Republican presidential nomination, and by 1976 was sidelined, as the Republican Party became increasingly the party of conservatism. Rockefeller served four terms as New York governor (1959–1973) and was appointed vice president in the administration of President Gerald Ford (1974–1977).
Rockwell, Norman (1894–1978) During nearly a half-century, Rockwell created 317 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, most depicting homely scenes embodying “traditional” American values—mom and apple pie—yet without excessive sentimentality and always with wry humor and consummate skill.
Rodgers, Richard (1902–1979) From the 1920s through the end of the 1950s, Rodgers was one of the leading composers of the American musical, producing with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II some of the most popular and best Broadway shows of all time, including Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), The Flower Drum Song (1958), and The Sound of Music (1959).
Roebling, John Augustus (1806–1869) Born in Germany, Roebling immigrated to the United States when he was 25 and made a fortune as a manufacturer of wire and cable. He used the cable in the design of suspension bridges, including two in Pittsburgh, one at Niagara Falls, and one across the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. His masterpiece design was the Brooklyn Bridge. Injured during the earliest phase of construction, he succumbed to tetanus, and his work was carried through to completion by his son, Washington Augustus Roebling.
Roebling, Washington Augustus (1837–1926) A German-born American civil engineer, Roebling directed construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, an engineering masterpiece of great beauty, which he had designed with his father, John Augustus Roebling, who was killed in an early phase of construction. Roebling labored 13 years, from 1869 to 1883, to complete the bridge. Stricken with “the bends” (decompression sickness) after working too long in an underwater caisson, he became a semi-invalid for the rest of his long life.
Rolfe, John (1585–1622?) Rolfe sailed from England to Virginia in 1609, but, because of a shipwreck, did not arrive until 1610. He was the first planter to profit from the cultivation of tobacco, which became Virginia’s principal export, but he is most famous for marrying Pocahontas, daughter of the powerful