Life Trustee Brooke Astor dies at 105

by TALLEY HENNING BROWN

Brooke Russell Astor was known as a great conversationalist, but her philosophy regarding her life’s work was something she described succinctly: “Power is the ability to do good things for others.” The beloved grande dame of New York philanthropy circles and a trustee of The Rockefeller University for 35 years, Mrs. Astor died of pneumonia on August 13 at Holly Hill, her estate in Briarcliff Manor, New York. She was 105 years old.

Brooke Russell was born March 30, 1902 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of Marine Commandant John H. Russell and Mabel Howard. She married three times: first to J. Dryden Kuser in 1919 (with whom she had one son, later known as Anthony Marshall), second to Charles Marshall in 1932 and lastly to Vincent Astor in 1953. She had homes in Westchester County as well as Massachusetts and Maine, but spent most of her work week in her Park Avenue apartment, where she could personally oversee the charitable undertakings that would become her legacy.

Mrs. Astor was a prolific writer, penning over the years numerous magazine articles, two memoirs (Patchwork Child, 1962, and Footprints, 1980) and two novels (The Bluebird Is at Home, 1965, and The Last Blossom on the Plum Tree: A Period Piece, 1986). She worked briefly as an editor at House and Garden magazine and for many years wrote articles for Vanity Fair magazine. It was upon Vincent Astor’s death, in 1959, and her inheritance of his estate — $60 million in her name and $60 million for what would become the Vincent Astor Foundation — that her real career began.

Mrs. Astor devoted nearly five decades to sowing a larger sense of community among the city’s erstwhile aristocracy, as the established matriarch of New York’s philanthropic circle. She regularly contributed time and money to the institutions she referred to as New York’s “crown jewels”: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library and Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Public Library and The Rockefeller University, among many others. Unusual among her social set, however, she spent equal energy providing for the basic operational needs of homeless shelters, jobs programs, nursing homes, schools, youth centers and other such organizations. By the time the Vincent Astor Foundation was dissolved in 1997, Mrs. Astor had donated almost $195 million as its president. In recognition of her generosity, she was given many unusual honors: In 1981, the Bronx Zoo named a baby elephant “Astor” in her honor; in 1996, the New York Landmarks Conservancy designated her a living landmark.

Rockefeller University elected Mrs. Astor to its Board of Trustees in 1972. Over the next 35 years, she gave generously to the university, contributing to the endowment as well as to unique projects. The many endeavors she supported include the expansion of the Child and Family Center, the creation of the Brooke Astor Student Life Center and the building of the 63rd Street Pedestrian Bridge. She helped establish the Women & Science initiative and she endowed three faculty chairs, currently held by James Darnell Jr., Paul Greengard and Torsten Wiesel. Throughout her tenure, she was a devoted supporter of Rockefeller’s students and the graduate program. The university conferred upon her an honorary degree in 1984, the David Rockefeller Award for Extraordinary Service to The Rockefeller University in 1996 and the Brooke Astor Award for Outstanding Contributions to Science, created for her, in 1998.

Mrs. Astor is survived by her son, Anthony Marshall, two grandsons, Philip and Alexander Marshall, and three great-grandchildren. In a eulogy delivered at her funeral service, lifelong friend and fellow trustee David Rockefeller said, “She was beloved not only by her many friends and family who honored her today, but also by millions of others whose lives she touched, especially those throughout our great city … We will never again see another woman with the rare grace and charm and joie de vivre of our treasured friend Brooke.”