Environmentalist’s Efforts Rewarded (NAPSA)—Being an environmentalist before environmentalism was widely applauded definitely has its rewards. Take Laurance S. Rockefeller, for instance. At a private ceremony in New York attended by such luminaries as ABC anchorman Peter Jennings and nephew Winthrop P. Rockefeller, Arkansas’ Lieutenant Governor, the elder Rockefeller became the first non-resident ever to be granted British Virgin Islandscitizenship. The award—which exCBS anchor Walter Cronkite acknowledged through a statement read by Jennings—wasin recognition of 50 years’ worth of pioneering work that helped make the BVI the tropical paradiseit is today. It was Laurance 8. Rockefeller, the international financier, who in the early 1960s helped establish the BVI National Parks Trust, which ultimately resulted in large swaths of land and islands being set aside as nature areas, while also coming up with what was then considered a novel idea in the resort hotel industry: linking the principles of conservation and the beauty of natural surroundings with resort accommodation activities. That, in turn, allowed conservation on the islands to become more economically viable—with no less than Queen " a Photo: Stuart Mark Gross ABC’s Peter Jennings helped honor Laurance S. Rockefeller (center) for his environmental work. Also present were Dr. The Honorable D. Orlando Smith, Chief Minister of the British Virgin Islands (left}, and Arkansas Lt. Governor Winthrop P. Rockefeller. Elizabeth on hand in 1964 to host the opening of his Rockresort’s now-famously luxurious Little Dix Bay Resort on Virgin Gorda. Jennings, who serves as a Governor of the Trustees of BVI National Parks Trust, USA, lauded Rockefeller for his “long-term awareness that overdevelopment would do more harm than good,” adding: “Laurance Rockefeller has defended the British Virgin Islands, invested in them, been a part of them and enjoyed them to the fullest.” For more information on the British Virgin Islands, visit www.bvitouristboard.com or call 1-800-835-8530.
