Brooke Astor Philanthropy
When Brooke Astor died on August 13, 2007, thousands of New Yorkers gathered to mourn and remember the grand dame of philanthropy.
Brooke Astor was born Roberta Brooke Russell on March 30, 1902 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was the daughter of a Marine Corps commandant and a socialite-intellectual mother. She spent most of her childhood years in Haiti, China, and the Dominican Republic. Brooke Astor studied at The Madeira School in 1919 but finished her studies in Holton-Arms.
Brooke Astor’s third husband was Vincent Astor, who served the chairman of the board of Newsweek magazine. Vincent’s father John Jacob Astor IV died onboard the Titanic and left his son a substantial fortune. Before he died in 1959, Vincent Astor asked his wife to take control of his foundation.
Over the next four decades, Brooke Astor gave away millions to numerous institutions, organizations, and charities throughout New York. Established in 1948, the Vincent Astor Foundation gave numerous grants. The first beneficiary of a $1 million grant was the United Neighborhood Houses, a program that helps keep teenagers living in settlement houses away from gangs.
Some of the other noteworthy beneficiaries of the Astor grant include:
- The Fresh Air Fund
- Lighthouse for the Blind
- Carnegie Hall
- Columbia University
- Bronx Zoo
- International Rescue Committee
- The Maternity Center Association
- The New York University
- Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
- New York-Presbyterian Hospital
The two institutions closest to her heart were the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library. Her father-in-law, John Jacob Astor IV, helped found the New York Public Library and she kept his memory alive by continuously supporting the library. She even sat as one of the library’s board members. By the time of her death, Brooke Astor had given away around $195 million.
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