Businessman, Disaster Victim. A victim of the RMS Titanic sinking, he was the great-grandson of patriarch John Jacob Astor I, the grandson of “landlord of New York” William Backhouse Astor, and the son of THE Mrs. William Astor, nee Caroline Schermerhorn, legendary queen of New York’s elite “400.” He and his older cousin, William Waldorf Astor, built the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in the 1890’s, resolving a feud which had developed between William and his mother Caroline. A man of many interests, John Jacob IV was also an inventor, a sci-fi novelist, and a veteran of the Spanish American War. In later years his divorce and remarriage to a bride nearly 30 years his junior stunned society. The couple were returning to New York on the RMS Titanic when the luxury liner hit an iceberg and sank off the coast of Newfoundland in April 1912. Unable to join his pregnant wife, Madeleine, in the lifeboats, he was last seen on deck. When his body was later recovered from the sea, it appeared that he had been struck and killed by one of the ship’s smoke stacks. Madeleine, who survived, gave birth to their son the following August. John Jacob Astor IV’s monument is near the Astor family vault. (bio by: Nikita Barlow)  Family links:  Parents:  William Backhouse Astor (1829 – 1892)  Caroline Webster Astor (1830 – 1908)  Spouses:  Madeleine Talmage Force Astor (1893 – 1940)  Ava Willing Lister (1868 – 1958)*  Children:  Vincent Astor (1891 – 1959)*  Alice Astor Pleydell-Bouverie (1902 – 1956)*  John Jacob Astor (1912 – 1992)*  Siblings:  Emily Astor Van Alen (1854 – 1881)*  Helen Astor Roosevelt (1858 – 1893)*  Charlotte Augusta Astor Haig (1858 – 1920)*  Caroline Schermerhorn Astor Wilson (1861 – 1948)*  John Jacob Astor (1864 – 1912) *Calculated relationshipCause of death: Titanic sinking