Nelson Rockefeller Hubert Humphrey. Despite Rockefeller's efforts, Nixon won the nomination on the first ballot. After Gerald Ford's elevation to the Presidency, Rockefeller was named Vice President. He played a ceremonial role with no scope for his energies. Rockefeller was not a candidate for a full term in 1976, and Ford selected Bob Dole as his running mate. Because the perception was that the Alliance for Progress was a failure, shortly after taking office, on February 17, 1969, President Richard Nixon commissioned a study to assess the state of Latin America. Nixon appointed his most powerful political rival, New York Governor Nelson
Laurance Rockefeller the advance of urban sprawl. In September 1991, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for contributions to conservation and historic preservation. Awarded by President George H. W. Bush, it was the first time in the Medal's history (since 1777) that it had been awarded for outdoor issues, effectively naming Rockefeller as "Mr Conservation", who more than any other American had put this issue on the public agenda. Rockefeller said at the award presentation that nothing was more important to him than "the creation of a conservation ethic in America". In 1992 Rockefeller and his wife Mary donated their Woodstock,