William Vincent Astor was a businessman and philanthropist and a member of the
prominent Astor family. Early life
Called Vincent, he was born in the Fifth Avenue mansion where his paternal
grandmother Caroline Webster Schermerhorn reigned over American
society. He was the son of John Jacob Astor IV, millionaire and inventor; and
his first wife, Ava Lowle Willing, an heiress from Philadelphia.
He graduated from St. George's School, in Middletown, Rhode Island in 1910 and
attended Harvard College from 1911 to 1912, leaving school without graduating.
Childhood and inheritance Vincent endured a difficult childhood.
His vain mother was embarrassed by his resemblance to his father and would
belittle and humiliate him in public. In addition, his parents had a difficult
marriage. They divorced in 1909 and on September 9, 1911, John Jacob "Jack"
Astor IV married Madeleine Talmage Force, an 18-year-old beauty one year
younger than Vincent. Their son, John Jacob "Jakey" Astor VI, would be born on
August 14, 1912. Vincent's hatred for Madeleine led him to believe that Jakey
was not even a biological Astor. In 1919, his mother Ava married a
recently widowed English nobleman, Thomas Lister, Baron Ribblesdale. While
a student at Harvard University in 1912, Vincent inherited an estimated $69
million when his father went down with the Titanic. After his father's death,
he quit college to manage his family's vast properties. He also was called "the
richest boy in the world." Interests
Like his father, Vincent belonged to the New York Society of Colonial Wars. He
served as commodore of the New York Yacht Club from 1928 to 1930.
Astor was interested in trains. In the early 1930s, he established an estate in
Bermuda which included a private narrow-gauge railway and union station
with the Bermuda Railway. The estate is now divided between several private
owners, none of whom are part of the Astor family. As recently as 1992, the
remains of some of his rolling stock were visible.
Philanthropy Vincent Astor was, according to Astor
family biographer Derek Wilson, "a hitherto unknown phenomenon in America:
an Astor with a highly developed social conscience." He was 20 when his father
died and having inherited a massive fortune, Vincent Astor dropped out of
Harvard University. He set about to change the family image from that of
miserly, aloof slum landlords who enjoyed the good life at the expense of
others. Over time, he sold off the family's New York City slum housing and
reinvested in reputable enterprises while spending a great deal of time and
energy helping others. He was responsible for the construction of a
large housing complex in the Bronx that included sufficient land for a large
children's playground, and in Harlem, he transformed a valuable piece of real
estate into another playground for children.
Vincent Astor appeared as No. 12 on the first list of America's richest people,
compiled by Forbes magazine. His net worth at the time was estimated at $75
million. Amongst his holdings was Newsweek
magazine which had for a time its headquarters in the former Knickerbocker
Hotel that had been built by Vincent Astor's father; he was the magazine's
chairman. He also inherited Ferncliff, the Astor family's 2,800-acre estate
near Rhinebeck, New York, where his father had been born. Vincent Astor,
however, would be the last family owner of the estate and occupant of the
"Ferncliff Casino", a Stanford White—McKim Mead & White designed 1904
Beaux Arts style 40,000 square feet building, inspired by the Grand Trianon
at Versailles. On his death in 1959, Vincent Astor bequeathed a main house at
Ferncliff to the Benedictine Hospital in Kingston, New York, and later his widow,
Brooke, donated "Ferncliff Casino" to the Catholic Archdiocese of New York,
and sold off many parcels of the estate. In 1963 Homer Staley, a local retired
businessman in the area, asked Brooke Astor to preserve the remaining natural
acreage of woodlands from development. She donated the land to the Rotary Club
of Rhinebeck, to become the Ferncliff Forest Game Refuge and Forest Preserve.
Marriages Helen Dinsmore Huntington
Astor married Helen Dinsmore Huntington, on April 30, 1914. At the ceremony, he
was stricken with the mumps, a disease that made him sterile; as for the bride,
her friend Glenway Wescott, the novelist, admiringly described her in
his unpublished diaries as "a grand, old-fashioned lesbian." The couple
divorced in 1940. A year later, Helen became the second wife of Lytle Hull, a
real-estate broker who was a friend and business associate of her former
husband. Mary Benedict Cushing
Shortly after his divorce, Astor married Mary Benedict Cushing, the eldest
daughter of Dr. Harvey Williams Cushing and Katharine Stone Crowell. Mary's
sisters were Betsey Maria Cushing and Barbara "Babe" Cushing. They divorced in
September 1953, and the following month, Mary wed James Whitney Fosburgh, a
painter who worked as an art lecturer at the Frick Museum.
Roberta Brooke Russell On October 8, 1953, several weeks after
divorcing his second wife, Astor married the once-divorced, once-widowed Roberta
Brooke Russell. According to an oft-told story in society circles, Astor agreed
to divorce his second wife only after she had found him a replacement spouse.
Her first suggestion was Janet Newbold Ryan Stewart Bush, the newly divorced
wife of James Smith Bush II, who turned Astor down with startling candor,
saying, "I don't even like you." Astor proceeded to tell her that he was not
well and, though only in his early 60s, he could not be expected to live for
very long, whereupon she would inherit his millions. At that, Janet Bush
reportedly replied, "What if you do live?" Mary Cushing then proposed
Brooke. Together, Vincent and Brooke developed the Vincent Astor Foundation,
a foundation that was designed to give back to New York City. Brooke died in
2007 at the age of 105. Wartime service in the United States
Navy = World War I =
Astor joined the Naval Reserve shortly after it was founded and was
commissioned as an ensign on December 28, 1915. He was called to active duty
as part of the New York Naval Militia in February 1917 by order of Governor
Charles S. Whitman to help guard bridges and aqueducts against possible German
sabotage. Vincent was assigned to help guard the Brooklyn and Manhattan
bridges. Following the declaration of war against
Germany, Vincent took advice from his friend and future-president Franklin
Delano Roosevelt and volunteered for active duty with the Navy on April 7,
1917. He went overseas on June 9 on the USS Noma. He was later assigned to the
armed yacht USS Aphrodite. He was promoted to lieutenant on January
1, 1918 and to lieutenant on July 1, 1918. He was joined in France by his
wife, who did charity work with the YMCA at the naval base in Bordeaux, while he
served as Port Officer at Royan. His last assignment was as an officer on
the captured German minelaying submarine U-117 during her voyage to the United
States. Astor returned to the United States on the U-117 on April 25, 1919
and was discharged on May 24. After the war Astor became a companion
of the Naval Order of the United States. = World War II =
In the quiet before the war, Astor sailed the Nourmahal in 1938 to Japan on
a secret civilian mission for President Franklin D. Roosevelt to gather
intelligence on the Marshall Islands. As he had done with the Noma in the First
World War, he loaned his yacht Nourmahal to the Coast Guard for service in the
Second World War. In World War II, Astor again served on
active duty with the Navy. He was called to active duty with the rank of
commander. Perhaps Astor's longer lasting
contributions were his weekly reports from the Chase Bank where his inside
access included USSR account balances. On 13 Dec 1940, Astor began reporting to
the US Treasury the Soviet weekly balances in an unbroken sequence up
through at least 1945. During the early months of 1942, he
suggested equipping fishing boats with radios so they could report U-boat
sightings. One boat so equipped was Ernest Hemingway's fishing yacht Pilar.
In June 1943 he was promoted to the rank of captain.
For his service in the Navy, Captain Astor was awarded the Navy Commendation
Medal, Naval Reserve Medal with star, World War I Victory Medal, American
Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal.
Death Vincent died on February 3, 1959, of a
heart attack at his apartment at 120 East End Avenue in Manhattan. Astor left
all of his money to the Vincent Astor foundation and Brooke, surprising many.
She continued his philanthropic work. Vincent Astor was first interred on his
"Ferncliff Courts" estate on the Hudson River near Rhinebeck, New York. When
Brooke later disposed of the property he was reinterred in the Sleepy Hollow
Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Brooke is buried next to him.
His half-brother Jakey felt cheated and resentfully stated Vincent "had the
legal, not the moral right to keep all the money". Jakey sued Brooke to inherit
his money. He was certain that Vincent was "mentally incompetent" when signing
his last will in June 1958 due to frequent smoking and alcoholism, though
Brooke insisted otherwise. While Vincent was hospitalized, Brooke would often
bring him liquor. Jakey accused her of using the liquor to influence the will
in her favor. Jakey ended up settling for $250,000. The rest of money remained
with the Vincent Astor foundation and Brooke.
Mount Astor A mountain in Antarctica bears Astor's
name. Rising to a height of 3,710 m, Mount Astor is located in the Hays
Mountains of the Queen Maud Range, and was named by Rear Admiral Richard Byrd
on his November 1929 expedition flight to the South Pole. Astor had been a
contributing philanthropist to the expedition.
References External links
Vincent Astor at Find-A-Grave Plans for Ferncliff at
http:news.hrvh.org Ferncliff Forest Game Refuge and Forest
Preserve website New York Times: Ferncliff "Astor Courts"
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