Abby Rockefeller Mauzé
Abby Rockefeller Mauzé one of the most influential women in the family. She created the Greenacre Foundation, of which she was president, in order to maintain and operate one or more parks in New York State.
She was born November 9, 1903 in New York City, the first child and only daughter of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874-1960) and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948).
She was known as “Babs” to avoiding confusion with name of her mother to family and friends to differentiate her from. She attended Brearley School and Miss Chapin’s School, both located in New York City.
Along with her five brothers — John Davison Rockefeller 3rd, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop, and David – “Babs” helped to continue the Rockefeller family’s philanthropic tradition established by her father and grandfather. In contrast to her brothers, who became public figures, she conducted her philanthropic activities quietly. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, an advisory member of the Board of Trustees of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (a chief benefactor of the Center along with her brother, Laurance, she received its Medal of Appreciation in 1965 and an honorary trustee of the Rockefeller Family Fund.
She also was a benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the YWCA, New York Hospital, the Museum of Modern of Art of which her mother was a founder, and in whose affairs her brother Nelson played a major role, the New York Zoological Society which was a major interest of her brother Laurance, and the Asia Society in whose affairs John D. Rockefeller 3rd also played a major role.
In 1968 Mrs. Mauzé created the Greenacre Foundation, of which she was president, in order to maintain and operate one or more parks in New York State for the benefit of the public. In 1971, she established Greenacre Park, a small vest-pocket park and waterfall on 51st Street in Manhattan, in order to provide New Yorkers “some moments of serenity in this busy world.” Laurance Rockefeller, a trustee of the Foundation, also helped to create the park.
“Babs” Rockefeller was married three times. On May 14, 1925, she married David M. Milton, a lawyer and investment banker. The Miltons had two children: Abby (who became Mrs. George Dorr O’Neill) and Marilyn (who became Mrs. William Kelly Simpson). The Miltons were divorced in 1943. “Babs” was married in 1946 to Dr. Irving H. Pardee, a neurologist, who died in 1949. On April 23, 1953 she married Jean Mauzé, senior vice president of United States Trust Company. He died in 1974. Mrs. Mauzé died May 27, 1976 at her New York City apartment on Beekman Place.
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