John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV, the former West Virginia governor and five-term U.S. senator who became one of the Senate's leading voices on health care, died on Friday at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 89.
His family did not provide a cause of death, the Washington Post reported. Rockefeller, the great-grandson of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, was the only member of his famous family to hold public office as a Democrat.
Born in New York City on June 18, 1937, Rockefeller moved to Emmons, West Virginia, in 1964 to work as a Volunteers in Service to America worker. He was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1966, served as the state's secretary of state from 1969 to 1973, and was president of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1973 to 1975.
He served two terms as governor, from 1977 to 1985, then won a U.S. Senate seat in 1984. He served five six-year terms, from January 1985 until his retirement in January 2015, and was succeeded by Republican Shelley Moore Capito.
In the Senate, Rockefeller chaired the Commerce, Intelligence and Veterans' Affairs committees. He authored the Children's Health Insurance Program, which has provided coverage to millions of low-income children, and played a central role in the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey paid tribute to Rockefeller on Friday, calling him a man who "devoted much of his life to serving our state and its people." Funeral and memorial arrangements had not been announced.
