But even with this increased interest in politics, Rockefeller says that while in college, he did not consider it likely that he would one day go on to run for office.

“After graduating, I was still trying to find my path and itching for a cause that I felt passionate about,” Rockefeller says. He worked in the State Department and then moved to the Philippines, where he volunteered for the Peace Corps.

But having spent years overseas, Rockefeller decided to return to the U.S. and learn more about his own country by working for the program that brought him to West Virginia.

Ezra F. Vogel—a Harvard social sciences professor emeritus—encountered Rockefeller in 1994 while they were both in Washington, D.C. Vogel then served as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council.

“We’ve tried many times to get him to come back to Harvard,” Vogel says, “but he always felt that his mission was to work for the citizens of West Virginia.”

In 1966, Rockefeller was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates. Ten years later he was elected governor of West Virginia, and after two terms in that post he was elected to the U.S. Senate, an office he has held since.

“That cause has never wavered,” Rockefeller says.

—Staff writer Charlotte D. Smith can be reached at charlottesmith@college.harvard.edu.