Brooke Astor Brooke Astor Roberta Brooke Astor (née Russell; March 30, 1902 – August 13, 2007) was an American philanthropist, socialite, and writer who was the chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation, which had been established by her third husband, Vincent Astor, son of John Jacob Astor IV and great-great grandson of America's first multi-millionaire, John Jacob Astor. Brooke Astor was the author of two novels and two volumes of personal memoirs. Brooke was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the only child of John Henry Russell, Jr. (1872–1947), the 16th Commandant of the Marine Corps, and his wife, Mabel Cecile Hornby Howard
John Jacob Astor IV (née Wilson) Vanderbilt). Astor was also a first cousin of William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor, with whom his mother had a notorious feud resulting in William's removal to England. Astor attended St Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and later attended Harvard College. Astor went by the name "Jack". His ungainly appearance and the perception that he was an aimless dilettante led one newspaper to give him the name "Jack Ass-tor". Among Astor's accomplishments was "A Journey in Other Worlds" (1894), a science fiction novel about life in the year 2000 on the planets Saturn and Jupiter. He also