John Rockefeller IV, 1937-2026

John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV passed away on Friday; he was 89. A former U.S. senator and governor of West Virginia, he holds a special place in the chess community. 

Rockefeller sponsored the 2010 Senate resolution officially establishing the second Saturday in October as National Chess Day; until then, the day was in a 1976 presidential proclamation that had no real effect.

He was also the father of US Chess Vice President John Rockefeller V, an Executive Board member and former chair of the Scholastic Committee.

The former senator wrote a My Best Move piece for the October 2017 Chess Life; we’re reprinting it below, and you can see that while he didn’t play chess himself, he saw the effect it had on his son and grandchildren. “In some ways,” he wrote, “I was the ideal sponsor because I’m not a chess player: I understood chess’ intrinsic value through the impartial lens of an outsider.”

US Chess extends its deepest condolences to the Rockefeller family.

My Best Move

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Jay Rockefeller

Toward the end of my junior year at Harvard, I had what can best be described as a “light bulb” moment. I’d just been elected president of a club, and, in the midst of all the attention it generated, I began asking myself why any of it mattered. So I went to a professor and said I wanted to do something more meaningful — and I wound up moving to Japan for three years. There I had the opportunity to experience a cross-section of life outside of the United States. What struck me quite vividly was the enormous disparity between the Harvard bubble and peoples’ everyday struggles beyond those sheltered ivy walls. The stark contrast completely shifted my focus toward public service. When I returned to the United States, I finished my Harvard degree in Far Eastern culture and history, then entered Yale for graduate work in Far Eastern studies.

I never made it through graduate school because I was offered the opportunity to work in the fledgling Peace Corps during John F. Kennedy’s administration. I served as the operations director for the program in the Philippines and as a special assistant to the director, R. Sargent Shriver. A few years later, when I learned about VISTA’s (Volunteers In Service to America) antipoverty program, I volunteered to move to Emmons, West Virginia, a coal-mining town that was one of the poorest areas in the nation. From that moment on, I never looked back. West Virginia became my home, the place where my wife, Sharon, and I raised our family, and where I began my lifelong career in public service. I served the citizens of West Virginia for over five decades — in the state legislature, as secretary of state, as governor, and as their senator.

My son, John, was fascinated by chess as a child, but he didn’t become involved in rated tournaments until his three children discovered chess. All played in dozens of rated tournaments — the youngest (age 10) is at 75 and counting — and John is a senior tournament director, certified coach, and active at the state and national level. It was through John that I became involved in sponsoring the Senate resolution that officially created National Chess Day. In some ways, I was the ideal sponsor because I’m not a chess player: I understood chess’ intrinsic value through the impartial lens of an outsider. I firmly believe chess is more than just a game. It teaches self-discipline, acceptance in the face of a loss, and how to quickly adjust and adapt to changing situations. And it’s diverse. Age, gender, and race don’t matter when two people are squaring off over the board.

Getting the resolution passed through the Senate was relatively smooth, but was not without a few hurdles, the most significant being the need for a co-sponsor. Fortunately, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) stepped up, Lamar Alexander (TN) added his support, and on September 29, 2010, the U.S. Senate, in S. Res. #672, unanimously proclaimed October 9, 2010 as the first official National Chess Day. I am proud to have helped make this happen — and it might never had happened if I hadn’t entered public service.

Clearly, My Best Move was leaving Harvard in my senior year and going to Japan. It was there, living in a paper and wood shack in the middle of a rice field, that I gained empathy for other cultures, and I realized that I wanted to make a difference in the world. My experiences in Japan put me on the track of public service, and my life has been much better for it.

About National Chess Day

by Dan Lucas

In 1976, President Gerald Ford issued a proclamation naming the second Saturday in October as National Chess Day. Although the sentiment was well-meaning, it was unofficial and unsupported, and eventually interest faded. In 2009, new Executive Board member Mike Atkins “noticed some conversations about National Chess Day in the US Chess ‘Issues’ forum and thought about reviving it.”

Mike's first step was to find an ally in Congress. “I knew that Senator Rockefeller’s son, John, was a new organizer/ tournament director in Baltimore as well as a chess parent. I approached him and asked if he could introduce me to his father with respect to a Senate-declared National Chess Day.”

John remembers, “When Mike Atkins spoke with me about the idea, I mentioned it to my father on the phone, and he told me to contact his legislative assistant, Barbara Pryor. I put Mike in email contact with Barbara and they took it from there.”

Mike continues, “We [Barbara and I] worked for a number of months on the wording of the resolution, making sure the text was accurate and correctly captured the statistics of players” before Senator Rockefeller introduced the resolution.

Their hard work paid off. On September 29, 2010, the Senate unanimously approved the resolution to proclaim October 9, 2010, as the first official National Chess Day. In appreciation for their efforts, Barbara Pryor received the Special Friend of US Chess award in 2012 and Senator Rockefeller was awarded the same honor in 2017.