William Rockefeller; Supported the Arts

William Rockefeller, 71, a great-grandnephew of John D. Rockefeller Sr. and a lawyer whose interests included the arts and animal welfare. From 1956 to 1964, he was president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He also was a former chairman of the Baker Institute of Cornell University, which does research on animal health. He had served as president and chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Assn. in New York. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in Morristown, N.J., which supports secondary education and the arts. On Friday in New York City of lung cancer.