Rock Bros., Inc.

When Aircraft Designer J. S. McDonnell Jr. met young Laurance Rockefeller back in 1939, McDonnell had "nothing but his briefcase." Laurance, the third son of John D. Jr., had money. He also had a taste for "helicopters and such things," and he liked the blueprints showed him by McDonnell, a crack designer who had once worked for Glenn L. Martin. When they parted, McDonnell had $40,000 of good Rockefeller cash and Rockefeller had 4,000 shares of highly speculative preferred stock. The deal helped McDonnell to build his second-floor engineering office into St. Louis' McDonnell Aircraft Corp., which during the war made 7,000,000 Ibs. of airframes, and last year earned a $1,600,000 net profit on $20 million in sales.

Last week, Laurance Rockefeller, who meanwhile had upped the stake of himself and his brothers in McDonnell to $400,000 and one-fifth voting interest, had further proof that his gamble had paid off. In Muroc, Calif., McDonnell gave the public its first look at the Voodoo, a single-seater, twin-engine plane which the Air Force hopes to use as a combination fighter, fighter-bomber or bomber escort.

But now, though the value of his original stake had tripled, tall Laurance Rockefeller (whose Princeton '32 classmates voted him most likely to succeed and third "most pious") was not sure how long he would keep all of his McDonnell stock. The paradoxical reason: the once risky McDonnell bet now looked too safe & sound. As head of Rockefeller Brothers, Inc., a unique research and investment house, Laurance and his brothers are only interested in enterprises that offer genuine risk. When the companies are well established, the brothers think most of their money should be taken out for other speculative ventures.

Too Likely to Win. "Rock Bros." is a blend of the Rockefellers' own brand of business acumen and Baptist ethics. Born to be rich, but bred to be philanthropists, the sons & daughter of John D. Rockefeller Jr.--John D. III, 42; Nelson, 40; Laurance, 38; Winthrop, 36; David, 33; and Mrs. Irving Pardee, 45--worry over where their money will do the greatest good, and still bring a reasonable return.

In 1939, they chipped in and built the Avila Hotel in Caracas, Venezuela. The deal paid off, but such casual choices as that and McDonnell aircraft were not satisfactory to the methodical Rockefellers. Three years ago the Rockefellers formed Rock Bros., to put their capital to work. They already had a treatise to guide them. David, the youngest of the family, who "works down at the bank" (Chase National), got his Ph.D. on "The Theory of Capital Resources and Economic Waste."

The lively brothers soon discovered that they had different investment tastes. David was interested in electronics, Winthrop in oil and calculating machines. But they also found out that they could "coerce each other into things." Among the first to start "coercing" was Nelson.

Sharks & Whales. Since 1946, Rock Bros, has poured $7,000,000 into Nelson's International Basic Economy Corp., which starts new Latin American businesses in partnership with local capital. Another $5,000,000 has gone into such varied enterprises as:

P: Filatures & Tissages Africains, which was financed in partnership with Belgians to make textiles in the Belgian Congo for the local market.

P: Reaction Motors, Inc., of Dover, N.J. which supplied the power plant for the Bell X-1, the Air Force's supersonic rocket plane (TIME, Jan. 17).

P: Laboratory for Electronics, Inc. of Boston (radar and ground control equipment for landing aircraft).

P: Long Island's Vitarama Corp., experimenting with movie cameras, projectors and screens that achieve three dimensional-type films.

P: Universal Business Machines, Inc., which makes offset duplicating machines.

A typical Rock Bros, risk was the financing of Harold Gatty, who flew around the world with Wiley Post. Gatty thought a tuna cannery in the South Pacific Islands would pay off. Laurance, who knew and trusted Gatty, agreed. Gatty will soon have his cannery at Tutuila, American Samoa. As soon as it is a going concern, Rock Bros, will start pulling out. What then? Says Laurance: "Who knows, it might be sharks or whales."

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