Winthrop Paul Rockefeller was born in New York City but spent his early years on a farm in Indiana that belonged to his mother’s parents, where he reportedly learned Lithuanian before English. Much of his early education occurred overseas in boarding schools in Switzerland, France, and Great Britain.
As a young man, Rockefeller considered becoming a state trooper as he had always admired the organization. However, Winthrop Paul’s uncle, Nelson Rockefeller, took him aside and told him that he had a larger path to pursue. Consequently, he took over the leadership of Winrock Farms, the Arkansas ranch established by his father in the early 1950s, after his father’s death from pancreatic cancer in February 1973. In 1974, he earned a degree in ranch management from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He became the first of “the Cousins,” as the third generation of Rockefellers is called, to come into his inheritance. During this time, he assumed his father’s dedication in the Republican Party of Arkansas. He also became involved with banking, retailing, automobile dealerships, and resorts.
