NEW BEDFORD – James S. McDonald, CEO of investment firm Rockefeller & Co., reportedly committed suicide in New Bedford on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported.
McDonald, 56, had been president and CEO of New York-based Rockefeller since 2001, according to The Journal. The company was originally set up in 1882 by oil baron John D. Rockefeller to manage his family’s fortune, and formally incorporated in 1979.
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A family friend confirmed that McDonald had taken his own life, the paper said. No further details about his death, including why he was in New Bedford, were available this morning.
McDonald’s death marks the second local suicide of a prominent financier this month.
Finn M.W. Caspersen, the former chairman and CEO of the financial services firm Beneficial Corp., was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Sept. 7 in Westerly. He was 67.
Police discovered Caspersen’s body on the grounds of the Shelter Harbor Golf Club, according to The Associated Press.
Caspersen, a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, owned a home in Westerly, according to Bloomberg News.
“Finn was always a gentleman and always made his resources available,” state Sen. Dennis Algiere, who represents the area near the Connecticut border, told Bloomberg. “He was a very charitable individual. He donated a lot of time and money to various organizations in our community over the years.”
