[family feud] philanthropy or misanthropy

John Jacob Astor

Interesting to see the arcane crew in the news. Anthony D. Marshall, 82, [son of the socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor] with his wife, Charlene, 61, will have to pay more than $1.3 million, return valuable artwork and jewelry, and give up his role as steward of his mother’s financial and health affairs as part of an agreement announced yesterday to settle a legal dispute involving the Astor fortune. J. P. Morgan Chase and Mrs. Astor’s longtime friend Annette de la Renta will serve as her permanent guardians. Mrs. Astor, 104, has been in fragile health for several years. Philip Marshall, 53, who had enlisted the help and testimony of David Rockefeller, Henry A. Kissinger and others as he sought to wrest control of Mrs. Astor’s affairs from his father, had his own blunt remarks: “We are overjoyed with today’s outcome, which puts Friday the 13th in a new light,” he said, presumably in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the 13 families. Here is one history. And here is another.