Top 10 for Wednesday: 10 Things to Know About A. I. Dupont:
Saturday Sept. 20 is Community Day at Nemours, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, 1600 Rockland Road, Wilmington, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Ran or Shine. Admission is Free.
1. A. I. duPont was born in 1864. Alfred was the eldest son, of the eldest son (Eleuthian Irenee du Pont II) of the eldest son (Albert V. du Pont) of Eleuthian Irenee du Pont founder of the E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company. E. I. du Pont was his great grandfather.
2. He and his two sisters and younger brother were orphaned at 13. He attended MIT as did his cousins T. Coleman duPont and Pierre Samuel duPont.
3. He lost an eye during a hunting accident and used a fake one. His eyes are on display along the timeline at the Nemours Mansion and Garden Museum Visitor’s Center.
4. He fought against the older family members to keep the E. I. DuPont majority in the family and won. He was part of the ‘new generation’ to take over E. I. DuPont along with two cousins, T. Coleman du Pont and Pierre du Pont. In 1916, he was forced out of the family business.
5. Three marriages: He married, Bessie Gardner. a distant cousin. They had 4 children together and divorced after 19 years of marriage; he married second cousin, Alicia Bradford Maddox less than a year later. She had one child from her first husband George and Alicia later adopted a war orphan, Denise. Albert ( A.I. ) took responsibly of both children after Alicia’s death. It has been said that Alicia only valued Albert’s friendship. He built her a mansion patterned after Petit Trianon at Versailles it had 77 rooms and 300 acres of gardens. She preferred to live in Paris; Jessie Ball, 20 years his junior was his third and final wife. She became the love of his life and put into action his wishes to share his fortune for the care of crippled children. This trust, the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust supports one of only 20 children’s hospitals in the nation ranked by U.S. News and World Report in all 10 specialties including: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, gastroenterology, neonatology, neurology and neurosurgery and orthopedics.
6. In 1920, he was nearly bankrupt. After leaving the family business he invested in real estate, banks and paper and made a fortune in Florida and became a philanthropist.
7. He traveled all over the world to try and improve his hearing loss, eventually he went deaf.
8. He personally funded a pension plan program for seniors in Delaware in 1929, later the U.S. Social Security system was patterned after it.
9. He applied for over 200 patents, most were related to his work including the first gas powered locomotive in the United States.
10. Alfred played and wrote music and founded the Tankopanicum Musical Club. He played violin and also conducted. A friend, John Phillip Sousa played one of his songs.
A. I. du Pont left his fortune to the care of sick and crippled children. He is buried at Nemours and written on the bell tower is ‘Rectitudine Sto’. It is the burial spot of A. I. du Pont, his wife Jessie Ball du Pont and her brother Ed Ball. It is quite a magnificent building towering over and looking out for the children in the hospital as A. I. du Pont t did in his will. Since 1935, the trust has distributed over 2 billion to the Nemours Foundation helping sick children.
Information obtained from the Timeline and the Film shown at the reception area at the Nemours Mansion and Gardens and at the Nemours website.
Mary Ann Fiebert is married and has two kids, and is also a member of our Community Media Lab. She is not a perfect person but is female so it’s as close as you can get. lol. Look for her Top 10 List every day on delcotimes.com.
