Students in Northeast Harbor got a surprise boost from the estate of socialite Brooke Astor, which was settled last week.
The longtime Mount Desert Island summer resident bequeathed $650,000 to the Maine Community Foundation, based in Ellsworth, to assist “high school programs which will best prepare the children of Northeast Harbor, Maine, for productive careers,” according to the Portland Press Herald.Â
Rob Liebow, superintendent of the Mount Desert Island Regional School System, told the paper only 16 of the 520 students at Mount Desert Island High School come from Northeast Harbor, but he imagined the money could be spent to fund internships and other educational opportunities. Astor was the daughter-in-law of John Jacob Astor IV, a real estate magnate who drowned in the sinking of the Titanic. Â