Brooke Astor

American philanthropist and socialite

• Born: March 30, 1902
• Birthplace: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
• Died: August 13, 2007
• Place of death: Briarcliff Manor, New York

Astor inherited one of America’s great fortunes and became one of America’s best known philanthropists, developing a personal involvement and style rare in American philanthropy. She continued her work until age ninety-five, when she closed the Vincent Astor Foundation.

Source of wealth: Inheritance

Bequeathal of wealth: Children; charity

Early Life

Brooke Astor was the only child of Marine officer John Henry Russell, Jr., and Mabel Howard Astor. Mother and child joined Russell at stations in Hawaii, Panama, and China. In Brooke’s memoirs (Patchwork Child, 1962, rev. 1993; Footprints, 1980), she recalled learning from Chinese Buddhist priests to respect all living beings, an attitude that governed her philanthropic work. The family returned to the United States in 1914. In 1919, she married wealthy John Dryden Kuser. Her only child, Anthony Kuser, was born in 1924. The abusive marriage ended in 1930. In 1932, she married stockbroker Charles “Buddie” Marshall; her son changed his name to Anthony Marshall. After Marshall’s 1952 death, she became an editor of House and Garden magazine. In 1953, she married Vincent Astor (1891-1959).

First Ventures

At Vincent Astor’s death, his estate was worth $127 million. Brooke Astor received $2 million in cash, valuable real estate, and a $60 million trust fund. Much of this fortune had been amassed by John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), a fur trader who invested profits in increasingly valuable New York real estate. He leased land rather than sold it, allowing developers to build for maximum profit and disclaiming responsibility for the squalid tenements that resulted. Trusts kept money in the family. When John Jacob Astor IV died in the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, his son Vincent inherited $87 million. He received his wealth outright, not in trust, and was free to rid the estate of slum properties, selling some to the city of New York for less than appraised value. In 1948, he established the Vincent Astor Foundation, to which he bequeathed $60.5 million. His widow was to head the foundation.

Mature Wealth

Under Vincent Astor, the foundation routinely donated about $175,000 each year to established charities, such as the American Red Cross and the Astor Home for Children, which he helped found. Brooke Astor redefined the foundation’s mission, insisting that New York, the source of the family’s wealth, should receive most of the money. She began personal on-site tours to potential recipients to ensure that money would be well used. In her first year, grants totaled more than $3 million.

Her interests included educational and cultural institutions, such as the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; her support was crucial during New York’s fiscal crisis in the 1970’s. Animal welfare grantees ranged from the Bronx Zoo to the Seniors’ Animal Veterinary Endowment to provide treatment for the aging pets of the elderly. The foundation also donated heavily to redevelopment of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, one of the most impoverished in the city. She closed the foundation in 1997. Final grant recipients included Partnership for the Homeless, the Animal Medical Center, and the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Center.

Her mind gradually failed. Her son, Anthony Marshall, took charge of her until 2006, when a guardianship petition by his son Philip Marshall resulted in Astor’s friend Annette de la Renta becoming guardian and Chase Bank taking charge of Astor’s financial affairs. Investigation of Anthony Marshall’s handling of Astor’s funds began in 2006; the validity of 2004 codicils to Astor’s will was questioned. In 2007, Marshall was charged with sixteen counts, including grand larceny and fraud, for defrauding his mother and stealing tens of millions of dollars from her. He was tried in 2009, and on October 8 was convicted of fourteen of the sixteen counts against him. On December 21, 2009, he was sentenced to serve one to three years in prison, the minimum sentence allowed.

Legacy

Astor was a woman of enormous personal wealth, leaving an estate of $198 million. She also possessed great social intelligence and vitality, making an outstanding contribution to her adopted city. The discipline provided by her international childhood, magazine editorship, and continual writing (memoirs, novels, essays, and poetry) gave her exceptional administrative skills. She recalled her husband telling her she would have fun administering the foundation, and she did. Her efforts gained her many honors, including a Medal of Freedom awarded by President Bill Clinton in 1998, her ninety-sixth year.

Bibliography

Gordon, Meryl. Mrs. Astor Regrets: The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008.

Kavaler, Lucy. The Astors: A Family Chronicle of Pomp and Power. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1966.

Kiernan, Frances. The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story. New York: W. W. Norton, 2007.