Born on August 17, 1948, in Castine, he prepared for college at George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill and became a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation cum laude in 1970, he worked briefly as a substitute teacher at George Stevens Academy and was taking accounting courses at Northeastern University when he was drafted into the U.S. Navy, where he served as a communications specialist from November of 1970 to August of 1974, attaining the rank of petty officer second class. For the next two years he was a graduate research assistant in the department of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maine in Orono. From 1976 to 1984, he was an economic research analyst with the Maine State Department of Labor. He joined the Bangor Daily News promotions department in 1984, became its business writer in 1986, and then moved into the newsroom, where he stayed for the next 20 years. He was married in 1971 to Leslie Carver, who survives him, as do his parents, Arthur O. Astbury, Jr., and Pauline R. Astbury; a son,William D.Astbury; and a brother.