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ROCKEFELLER IS DEAD AT 70;
VICE PRESIDENT UNDER FORD
AND GOVERNOR FOR 15 YEARS

HEART ATTACK VICTIM

Stricken in New York Office 
While Working on a 
Modern Art Book

[[image]]
[[caption]] Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller [[/caption]]
[[credit]] The New York Times/Jack Manning [[/credit]]

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller died last night after suffering a heart attack at his office in the Rockefeller Center complex in midtown Manhattan, a family spokesman announced early today.

The 70-year-old four-time Governor of New York was stricken at 10:15 P.M. and apparently died instantly while sitting at his desk in his office on the 56th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. He had been at the office working late on a book on modern art, one of his favorite subjects since leaving public life in 1976.

A personal security aide with him at the time of the cardiac arrest attempted unsuccessfully to revive him, according to Hugh Morrow, a longtime Rockefeller family spokesman. 

Paramedics summoned from St. Clare's Hospital rushed to the office shortly after 11 P.M. and also attempted without success to resuscitate Mr. Rockefeller. The former Vice President was then rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital at 100 East 77th Street, near Lexington Avenue, arriving at 11:45 P.M.

No History of Serious Illness

After further efforts to revive him at the hospital's emergency room failed, he was pronounced dead by Dr. Ernest Esakof, a Rockefeller family physician. 

Mr. Morrow said that Mr. Rockefeller, who had had no history of serious illness during his long career in public life, had spent most of the day at his office writing his book. Late in the afternoon, Mr. Rockefeller went to the Buckley School, 113 East 73d Street, where two of his sons, 15-year-old Nelson Jr. and Mark, 12, are students, to introduce former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger at a speaking engagement. 

After the school appointment, Mr. Rockefeller, his wife, Happy, and his two sons returned to the family's duplex apartment at 812 Fifth Avenue, near 62d Street, for a quiet dinner, Mr. Morrow said.

After dinner, at about 9 P.M., Mr. Rockefeller returned to his office to resume work on his book and was stricken little more than an hour later. Doctors said all indications were that Mr. Rockefeller died instantly.

A spokesman said Mr. Rockefeller's body would be taken to a funeral home in Tarrytown, several miles from the Rockefeller family estate at Pocantico Hills, N.Y.

Wife and Brother at Hospital

Mrs. Rockefeller arrived at Lenox Hill Hospital at 12:25 A.M. in a red Mercedes Benz. Mr. Rockefeller's brother, Laurence, and his wife also went to the hospital, and the former Vice President's eldest son, Rodman, the president of International Basic Economy Corporation, arrived there shortly before 2 A.M.

Mr. Morrow, looking calm but weary and speaking in slow, solemn tones, announced Mr. Rockefeller's death shortly after 1 A.M. to reporters gathered in the hospital's emergency room driveway. A bit later, after reporters had rushed to telephones with the news, Mr. Morrow smiled as he told a reporter:

"He was having a wonderful time with the whole art enterprise. He was 'having a ball,' as he put it."

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