Concept
Alfred Irénée du Pont (May 12, 1864 – April 28, 1935) was an American industrialist, financier, philanthropist and a member of the influential Du Pont family. Alfred du Pont first rose to prominence through his work in his family's Delaware-based gunpowder manufacturing plant, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (now known as DuPont), in which for many years he served as a director of the board and Vice President of operations. Following an acrimonious departure and a brief dip in personal fortunes, he embarked on business of his own, investing in land and banking in Florida. He died a multimillionaire, with the bulk of his fortune sustaining the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust. Du Pont was born in the Brandywine Valley region of Delaware to which his great-great-grandfather Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours had immigrated with his sons after the French Revolution. The son of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont II, a partner in the DuPont family gunpowder business, and Charlotte Shepard Henderson, he had two older sisters and two younger brothers. When du Pont was 13, his mother, who had a history of mental illness, was committed to an asylum following an episode of hysteria. Within a week, she died. The du Pont children were orphaned a month later when Éleuthère followed, a victim of tuberculosis. Du Pont's family intended to separate the children and sell their family home, Swamp Hall, but were persuaded otherwise by the fierce resistance of the children. The girls remained in the home, but du Pont was sent to boarding school: first, to the religious Shinn Academy in New Jersey and then, two years later, Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. After graduation, he enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sharing a room with his cousin T. Coleman du Pont. In 1884, after only two years at MIT, he left to work at the family's gunpowder manufacturing plant in the Brandywine mills. Though he started in a low position, he eventually became known, according to the Alfred I. du Pont Foundation, as "one of the nation's top powder men.
