Rockefeller Supported Northern Panhandle
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John Saunders remembered the first time he met Jay Rockefeller. It was shortly after Rockefeller, a scion of the famed Rockefeller family, arrived in West Virginia.
Saunders was skeptical. After all, this was a man who was part of one of the wealthiest families in world history. How would he fit in West Virginia?
What Saunders and others in the Northern Panhandle learned during Rockefeller’s decades in the Mountain State was that he truly cared about West Virginia and its people and spent his professional career supporting them.
“He was a special person,” Saunders said of Rockefeller, who died Friday at age 89.
Saunders said his relationship with Rockefeller grew closer through work. Rockefeller climbed from state delegate to Secretary of State to governor to U.S. Senator. Saunders, a District 1 staff representative for the United Steelworkers with a long career representing workers’ interests, said Rockefeller always looked out for workers’ interests, too.
“He and his staff, they cared about good-paying jobs, they cared about West Virginia. They cared about the industry and its people,” Saunders said. “We worked together with the company. He was great at that.
“It’s not a one-sided industry,” Saunders said. “It’s both sides and a need to talk to both sides.”
Marshall County Commissioner Scott Varner, a former majority whip for the West Virginia House of Delegates, said Rockefeller was like that with every industry important to the Northern Panhandle, from steel to coal.
Rockefeller, who Varner called a “true statesman,” was someone who was always available and devoted to improving West Virginians’ lives.
“Infrastructure was big with him,” Varner said. “Not only was he concerned about and worked to maintain and solidify our industries, but infrastructure was big — water, sewer, highways.
“He always took phone calls,” he added. “And he was always adamant that we needed to work together to make things happen.”
Varner lauded Rockefeller’s integrity. Saunders said that, as powerful as he and his family was, Rockefeller was an unassuming figure. He remembered nights in Rockefeller’s Senate office, where he would break out one of his favorite snacks — Ritz crackers and peanut butter.
“He was low-key,” Saunders said. “He was a good man with good values.”
Varner said Rockefeller’s importance to West Virginia could never be quantified.
“It’s immeasurable,” he said. “I’ve said many times, his heart is bigger than the Capitol dome. He wanted to make sure things were better and worked very hard to do that.”