• Office Sought: Senator, West Virginia
• Birth Date: June 18, 1937
• Occupation: College President
• Religion: Presbyterian
• Web site: http://www.rockefeller.senate.gov

Education

Harvard University, BA

John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV was born in New York and resides in Charleston, W.Va.

He received a bachelor's degree in Far Eastern languages and history from Harvard University in 1961. He also studied Japanese in Tokyo and Chinese at Yale University.

Before entering state government, Rockefeller was special assistant to the director of the Peace Corps. In 1964 he moved to Emmons, W.Va., as a VISTA anti-poverty volunteer and never left the state.

He served in the West Virginia House from 1967 to 1969 and as West Virginia secretary of state from 1969 to 1973.

He was the Democratic party's gubernatorial nominee in 1972, but lost the election to Republican Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr.

Rockefeller then served as president of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1973 to 1976.

Rockefeller was elected governor in 1976 and took office in 1977. He was re-elected to a second four-year term and served until 1984.

Rockefeller was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990, 1996 and 2002. Rockefeller recently announced that will seek a fifth term in the Senate in 2008.

Rockefeller and his wife, Sharon Percy, have four children.