Elizabeth D. Rockwell Papers

Collection

Identifier: 1998-010

Staff Only

The Elizabeth Rockwell Papers contains materials from Rockwell's career in retirement planning at Heights Savings & Loan and Oppenheimer, as well as her philanthropic partnership with the University of Houston and other Houston area organizations. These materials include correspondence, speeches, presentations, and articles written by Rockwell, documentation of her charitable giving, including proposals, planning, budgets, reports, agreements, and programming, awards and recognition, publicity and press, administrative and legislative documents, photographs, and realia. The Rockwell Papers also contain personal and family materials, a small collection on the 1900 Galveston hurricane, and transcripts of interviews with Rockwell about her memories and discussion of materials in this collection.

Dates

1840-2011

Creator

Rockwell, Elizabeth Dennis (1921-2011) (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Special Collections owns the physical items in our collections, but copyright normally belongs to the creator of the materials or their heirs. The researcher has full responsibility for determining copyright status, obtaining permission to publish from copyright holders, and abiding by current copyright laws when publishing or displaying copies of Special Collections material in print or electronic form. For more information, consult the appropriate librarian. Reproduction decisions will be made by Special Collections staff on a case-by-case basis.

Extent

78 linear feet

Additional Description

Biographical Information

Elizabeth Dennis Rockwell was born in Houston, Texas on May 19, 1921 and was a lifelong Houston resident. She attended River Oaks Elementary School and she was in Lamar High School’s first graduating class. She also attended both the University of Houston and Rice University, where she took accounting and business courses before entering the workforce in the energy industry. In 1967, she took a position at Heights Savings & Loan Association. She became well-versed in Keogh Retirement Plans and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). Rockwell gave many presentations about them during her tenure at Heights Savings & Loan, including testifying before Congress. In 1982, she began working at Oppenheimer’s Investment Planning Group, partnering with John Phillips and Charles Fahy. Throughout her career, Rockwell gave presentations in Houston and around the U.S. on retirement and tax planning. She also wrote on finance for various publications, and was a regular contributor to the 50 Plus supplement of the Houston Chronicle. She continued to work at Oppenheimer as an investment, estate, retirement, and tax planning expert until her retirement in 2001.

Rockwell was active in many Houston-area organizations and was a long-time contributor to the University of Houston. She was the underwriter for the Discover UH lecture series and helped to establish the Rockwell Career Center at the C. T. Bauer College of Business. Multiple campus locations are named for Rockwell, including the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion in the M. D. Anderson Library and the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center on Ethics and Leadership. She also endowed Chairs for the Deans of the M. D. Anderson Library, the College of Education, and the Cullen College of Engineering. She was the recipient of several awards and much recognition for her involvement with the University of Houston and her other philanthropic endeavors, such as an honorary doctorate from the University of Houston, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the C. T. Bauer College of Business, a commendation from Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown, and the Jesse H. Jones Award from the American Red Cross. Elizabeth D. Rockwell died in Houston on January 28, 2011.