du Pont, Pierre Samuel

▪ American industrialist

born , Jan. 15, 1870, Wilmington, Del., U.S.

died April 5, 1954, Wilmington

 manufacturer and the largest American munitions producer during World War I.

      Pierre Samuel du Pont was the great-great-grandson and namesake of the French economist, whose son, Éleuthère Iréné du Pont, began the family's fortunes in America in 1802. Graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1890, the young du Pont joined his family's firm, E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Co. He was made assistant superintendent at the Carney's Point, N.J., plant, where he helped produce a smokeless shotgun powder. The family enterprise went through a consolidation in 1902, creating one company, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., out of almost 100 firms. Du Pont became its treasurer and then its president from 1915 to 1919, when he became chairman of the board, a post he held until 1940. He saw the firm's production expand from 12,000,000 pounds of munitions yearly before the war to more than 1,000,000 pounds each day at the height of production during World War I. The company constructed a facility near Nashville, Tenn., for smokeless powder production that became the largest such factory in the world. Moreover, production began in part of the facility only 67 days after groundbreaking ceremonies. Before the war ended, the du Pont company had sold nearly 1,500,000,000 pounds of explosives to the government and its allies.

      After the war, Pierre Samuel du Pont purchased enough stock in the General Motors Corporation to place himself as president (1920–23) and as chairman of the board (1923–29). Besides serving on the boards of numerous banks and corporations, du Pont donated generously to educational activities in Delaware. In 1940 he retired to his 1,000-acre estate, Longwood, though he continued his philanthropies.

* * *