Pierre Samuel du Pont was an American entrepreneur, businessman,
philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family.
He was president of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company from 1915 to 1919,
and served on its Board of Directors until 1940. He also managed General
Motors from 1915-1920, became GM's president in 1920, and served on GM's
Board of Directors until 1928. Among other notable accomplishments, he was
among the Founding Board of Directors of the Empire State Building which opened
in 1931. Descent
Du Pont was named after his great-great-grandfather, Pierre Samuel
du Pont de Nemours, a French economist and patriarch of the du Pont family. Du
Pont de Nemours immigrated to America with relatives including his son,
Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, who founded the DuPont company in 1802, and whose
descendants would form one of the richest American business dynasties of
the ensuing two centuries. Early life and education
Pierre S. du Pont was born January 15, 1870 at Nemours, the family estate near
Wilmington, Delaware. He was the eldest of three sons born to Lammot du Pont and
Mary Belin. He graduated with a degree in chemistry from MIT in 1890 and became
assistant superintendent at Eleutherian Mills on the Brandywine River.
Early business career He and his cousin Francis Gurney du Pont
developed the first American smokeless powder in 1892 at the Carney's Point
plant in New Jersey. Most of the 1890s he spent working with
the management at a steel firm partly owned by DuPont, the Johnson Street Rail
Company in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Here he learned to deal with money from the
company's president, Arthur Moxham. In 1899, unsatisfied with how conservative
DuPont's management was, he quit and took over the Johnson Company. In 1901,
while du Pont was supervising the liquidation of Johnson Company assets in
Lorain, Ohio, he employed John J. Raskob as a private secretary, beginning a long
and profitable business and personal relationship between the two.
Expansion of DuPont He and his cousins, Alfred I. du Pont
and T. Coleman du Pont, purchased E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in 1902,
in order to keep the company in family hands, after the death of its president,
Eugene I. du Pont. They set about buying smaller powder firms. Until 1914, during
Coleman du Pont's illness, Pierre du Pont served as treasurer, executive
vice-president, and acting president. In 1915, a group headed by Pierre, which
included outsiders, bought Coleman's stock. Alfred was offended and sued
Pierre for breach of trust. The case was settled in Pierre's favor four years
later, but his relationship with Alfred suffered greatly, and they did not speak
after that. Pierre served as DuPont's president
until 1919. Pierre gave the DuPont company a modern management structure
and modern accounting policies and made the concept of return on investment
primary. During World War I, the company grew very quickly due to advance
payments on Allied munition contracts. He also established many other DuPont
interests in other industries. He was featured on the cover of Time
magazine January 31, 1927 issue. That same year he was elected an honorary
member of the Delaware Society of the Cincinnati.
General Motors Du Pont was a significant figure in the
success of General Motors, building a sizeable personal investment in the
company as well as supporting Raskob's proposal for DuPont to invest in the
automobile company. Pierre du Pont resigned the chairmanship of GM in
response to GM President Alfred Sloan's dispute with Raskob over Raskob's
involvement with the Democratic National Committee. When du Pont retired from its
Board of Directors, GM was the largest company in the world.
DuPont and MIT Du Pont was one of the first of many of
his family members to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Both his younger brothers, Irénée du Pont and Lammot du Pont II, graduated
from MIT. Du Pont, his relations and the DuPont corporation were generous
benefactors over the years, and helped set up multiple endowments, fellowships,
scholarships and faculty chairs for the university. When MIT moved to its
current location in Cambridge in 1917, Pierre, T. Coleman du Pont and Charles
Hayden donated $215,000 to house the Department of Mining Engineering and
Metallurgy. Du Pont served on multiple boards and
committees, and from 1916-1951 he was a member of the MIT Corporation, the
university's board of trustees. Along with his brother Lammot, he was given
the honor of being made a Life Member Emeritus when he stepped down from the
board in 1951. In 2000, the DuPont MIT Alliance was
formed. Over the next 10 years, the DuPont corporation donated $55 million
to the university to fund as many as 20 different research projects.
Retirement and legacy Pierre retired from DuPont's board in
1940. He also served on the Delaware State Board of Education and donated
millions to Delaware's public schools, financing the replacement of Delaware's
dilapidated Negro schools. He made a significant contribution to
the du Pont legacy with his genealogy research. His book, Genealogy of the Du
Pont family, 1739-1942, published in 1943. He died April 4, 1954.
P. S. Dupont High School in Wilmington is named in his honor. A building at the
University of Delaware, Du Pont Hall, is also named for him. It houses the
offices and laboratories for the College of Engineering.
Du Pont is famous for opening his personal estate, Longwood Gardens, with
its beautiful gardens, fountains, and conservatory, to the public. Its
construction was inspired by his international travels, visiting the
great gardens of the world. He was a bachelor until age 45. He married his
cousin Alice Belin in 1915 after the death of his mother, and had no
children. See also
Du Pont family Ross Point School
P. S. Dupont High School References
External links Biography at the DuPont Heritage website
Published works Pierre S. Du Pont. Genealogy of the Du
Pont family, 1739-1942. Hambleton. ASIN B0007FG8N6.