Was Rockefeller's Calm Face a Mask?

David Senra says the calm face Rockefeller showed the world was a mask. Behind the placid exterior he tried hard to hide other traits, and the mask rarely slipped across a multi-decade career because of his self-control.

Quiet charisma and an unaggressive exterior brought people onto his side. Rockefeller could charm birds out of a tree and trap the prey before it knew the seduction had begun. He knew the skill and told it as a dream. He sat on a lawn, a ruffian wanted to see him, everyone advised him not to meet the man, and he said he would see him. He asked the man nicely and sweetly to sit down, talked quietly, won him over, and the man departed all good. People who worked with him for decades called him patient and gracious. He never said an unkind word, kept the same manner, and treated everyone the same regardless of status.

He exuded self-confidence, but his wife knew of the numberless nights he spent worrying about the future. Publicly he never said an unkind word about anyone. Privately he delivered lethal judgments about all his business associates. The outwardly modest man carried an enormous ego. To the press he always used we when talking of his company's success, but in private I often came forth. The writing puts the face as if, as a youngster, he had willed himself to give the world a face not necessarily his own.