MARK
PRATT 09/15/09 02:08 PM ET 
BOSTON - James S. McDonald, president and chief
executive of investment management firm Rockefeller & Co., has died of an
apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, Massachusetts authorities said
Tuesday.
McDonald, 56, was found in his vehicle at about 3 p.m.
Sunday behind a car dealership in Dartmouth, about 50 miles south of Boston,
said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol district attorney's office.
There was no note, but McDonald "made a phone
call to his wife earlier in the day," Miliote said Tuesday, without
getting into specifics of the call. The death is still under investigation.
Barclay McFadden III, a longtime friend, said McDonald
"took his own life," and added that neither he nor the family had further
comment.
McDonald had been president and chief executive of the
New York investment manager since 2001. The company was started in 1882 by John
D. Rockefeller to manage the family's assets.
Rockefeller & Co., which also has offices in
Boston, Washington and Wilmington, Del., offers wealth and investment
management services to families, foundations and endowments. The company had
$25 billion in assets under administration at the end of last year, according
to its Web site.
"Jim McDonald was an exceptional individual, who
provided strong leadership of Rockefeller and Company for over eight
years," board Chairman Colin Campbell said in a statement. "He will
be missed by all of us privileged to have known and worked with him."
Austin Shapard, the company's chief operating and
financial officer, has assumed day-to-day leadership of Rockefeller & Co.
McDonald, a New York City resident, was also on the
board of stock exchange operator NYSE Euronext. He was formerly on the board of
CIT Group Inc.
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