Rockefeller investment chief dies

Rockefeller investment chief dies
By Jay Fitzgerald
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - Added 7h ago
Boston Herald General Economics Reporter

The head of a New York-based investment firm handling the wealth of the Rockefeller family and other uber-rich individuals apparently took his own life over the weekend behind an abandoned Saturn dealership in Dartmouth.

James McDonald, who led Rockefeller & Co. for eight years and previously served as chief of a small Boston investment firm, was found dead Sunday in a BMW sport utility vehicle from a single, apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, said a spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s office.

“Preliminarily, it does look like suicide,” said spokesman Gregg Miliote.

Detective-Sgt. Robert Szala of the Dartmouth Police Department said anti-depressant medication, prescribed for McDonald, was found in his vehicle.

Dartmouth police said Karen McDonald, the financier’s wife, contacted a friend in Marion Sunday after listening to a phone message in which her husband said he planned to kill himself. Szala said police received a call from the Marion resident, who had found McDonald’s vehicle on the former Saturn property.

Police said they found McDonald’s body and a 12-gauge shotgun in the seat behind the driver’s seat. No note was found. The SUV and the gun were both registered to McDonald.

A friend of McDonald described him as a “mild-mannered, kind” man who was the father of two children.

Besides his job at Rockefeller & Co., McDonald, 56, was also a director at the NYSE Euronext. Last May, he resigned from the board at embattled lender CIT Group Inc., saying the post was too time-consuming.

McDonald was a 1974 graduate of Harvard University and earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1977. He was the former head of Pell, Rudman Trust Co. in Boston.

“He was a highly regarded figure in the business here in Boston,” said Tim Vaill, chief executive of Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc., which competes in the same field.

Rockefeller & Co., which has offices in Boston, New York and Wilmington, Del., traces its roots to a New York family office established in 1882 by John D. Rockefeller, the late oil tycoon. Established in 1979, it has $25 billion under management.

“Jim McDonald was an exceptional individual who provided strong leadership of Rockefeller and Co. for over eight years,” said Colin Campbell, the firm’s chairman of the board, in an e-mailed statement.
Curt Brown of the Standard-Times and Herald wire services contributed to this report.