Financier, Businessman, Philanthropist. The son of Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, he entered Harvard University only to leave after the death of his father in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. He was the first Astor, in several generations, to take active control of the family investments, with interests in automobiles, shipping and air transportation, as well as the ancestral involvement in Manhattan, New York City, New York real estate. A Commodore of The New York Yacht Club, his yacht, "Nourmahal," was utilized for geographical and zoological research and exploration, donating the vessel to the government at the outset of the Second World War. He was the owner of "Newsweek Magazine," director of Western Union, the Chase Manhattan Bank, and The United States Lines, and was a trustee of the New York Public Library and the New York Zoological Society. During both World Wars he served as a staff officer in the United States Navy; he was a retired Captain in the Naval Reserve. He married in 1914 Helen Dinsmore Huntington, patroness of The Metropolitan Opera. Without issue, he founded 'The Vincent Astor Foundation,' which has distributed over one hundred million dollars for the benefit of the citizens of New York. Originally buried at "Ferncliff," the Astor country estate at Rhinebeck, Duchess County, New York, he was later transferred to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Financier, Businessman, Philanthropist. The son of Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, he entered Harvard University only to leave after the death of his father in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. He was the first Astor, in several generations, to take active control of the family investments, with interests in automobiles, shipping and air transportation, as well as the ancestral involvement in Manhattan, New York City, New York real estate. A Commodore of The New York Yacht Club, his yacht, "Nourmahal," was utilized for geographical and zoological research and exploration, donating the vessel to the government at the outset of the Second World War. He was the owner of "Newsweek Magazine," director of Western Union, the Chase Manhattan Bank, and The United States Lines, and was a trustee of the New York Public Library and the New York Zoological Society. During both World Wars he served as a staff officer in the United States Navy; he was a retired Captain in the Naval Reserve. He married in 1914 Helen Dinsmore Huntington, patroness of The Metropolitan Opera. Without issue, he founded 'The Vincent Astor Foundation,' which has distributed over one hundred million dollars for the benefit of the citizens of New York. Originally buried at "Ferncliff," the Astor country estate at Rhinebeck, Duchess County, New York, he was later transferred to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
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