Vincent Astor (1891-1959)
Captain (William) Vincent Astor, Founder of the Vincent Astor Foundation
He was featured in the first Forbes Rich List (1918) coming in at twelfth with $75-million, behind Mrs. E.H. Harriman and ahead of James Stillman, Thomas Fortune Ryan, Daniel Guggenheim, Charles Schwab and J.P. Morgan, Jr., who all came in tied at thirteenth. He contracted mumps at the time of first marriage which made him sterile. He was married three times and with his third wife, Brooke Astor, created the Astor Foundation that still operates today. In 1927, he organized “The Room” in a small, unremarkable apartment at 34 East 62nd Street. “The Room” was an unofficial spy ring, comprised of bankers like J.P. Morgan, businessmen like Astor, and other prominent members of New York’s high society such as Charles Suydam Cutting. For 13-years they acted as informal advisors and economic spies to their close friend and fellow New Yorker, President Roosevelt, acting against isolationists who didn't want America to enter WWII.
