Life for Two: A Memoir

An awe-inspiring account of love and grief, and extraordinary political and philanthropic power, Sharon Percy Rockefeller tells her story for the first time

Born in 1944 into a rising midwestern family, Sharon Percy Rockefeller and her twin sister, Valerie, came of age at the crossroads of politics, wealth, media, and culture, in a world shaped by postwar American optimism. Their father, Charles Percy, rose from Depression-era hardship to become a United States senator and a serious presidential contender. A Christian Scientist, he took seriously the obligations to public service that his faith espoused, and he passed those values on to his children: Percys don’t watch, they do. Sharon and Valerie took note; they excelled in academics and went their separate ways to Stanford and Cornell. After college, the sisters agreed to return to Chicago to campaign for their father, but that summer, in 1966, twenty-one-year-old Valerie was brutally murdered in their family home. The crime, which remain unsolved to this day, became the defining tragedy of Sharon’s life. But rather than allow herself to be consumed by grief, Sharon vowed to live for the both of them.

Eight months after Valerie’s murder, Sharon married John D. Rockefeller IV, great-grandson of the Standard Oil titan, bringing her deeper into America’s political and philanthropic elite. Rather than adhere to a cloistered life, though, she forged a powerful identity of her own. After moving to West Virginia, Sharon cofounded the nonprofit Mountain Artisans that brought American quilting into the national spotlight, and in the process changed the economic futures of the craftswomen she worked with. She leveraged her position as the daughter of Senator Percy and wife of the West Virginia governor to campaign for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Riveted by the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Watergate hearings, she became one of public broadcasting’s most influential champions, all too aware of how important an informed citizenry is to a thriving democracy.

Against the backdrop of the women’s movement, Percy Rockefeller became one of the first women to serve on major corporate and university boards, gaining an in-the-room education on business and leadership, and she went on to spend thirty-five years helming Washington, DC’s flagship public media station, WETA, helping transform public broadcasting into a vital force for education, journalism, and culture. More than a story of privilege and access, Life for Two is the deeply human account of one woman’s journey through family, feminism, public service, and nearly a century of American change.

The book, Life for Two: A Memoir [Bulk, Wholesale, Quantity] ISBN#9798217061099 in Hardcover by Sharon Rockefeller may be ordered in bulk quantities. Minimum starts at 25 copies. Availability based on publisher status and quantity being ordered.