Thanks to the continuing generosity of the family of the late Col. John Jacob Astor IV, who so bravely met his end last year on the Titanic, New York schoolboys will continue to have the opportunity to learn to shoot rifles and even more powerful weapons, the Los Angeles Times reports.  “Fourteen of the largest high schools of the city have now installed a target machine gun,” largely through funds supplied by the family.

The Colonel’s son, Vincent Astor, has been elected director of the Public School Athletic League which administers the shooting lessons, and Astor will “continue the active interest which his father had in teaching schoolboys of the country how to shoot.” Having inherited $69 million and dropped out of Harvard on his father’s death, it seems that “the richest boy in the world” (as they are calling him) has both the money and the time to devote to this worthy endeavor.