Irenee Du Pont

Background

Irenee Du Pont was born on December 21, 1876, at Nemours, near Wilmington, Delaware, United States. He was the son of Lammot du Pont and Mary Belin.

Education

Du Pont attended the Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, graduating at the age of fifteen.

After a year at Phillips Andover, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), receiving the B. S. degree in chemistry in 1897 and the M. A. in chemical engineering a year later.

Career

After a few unrewarding months as an apprentice in the paper-making shops of Pusey and Jones, he joined William H. Fenn of the Manufacturers Contracting Company in Newark, New Jersey, as a partner and secretary-treasurer. From the start, Du Pont's career was guided by his older brother Pierre, who had taken charge of the family affairs after the death of their father in an explosion in 1884 and who was always called "Dad" by his younger brothers and sisters. Pierre encouraged Irenee to enroll at MIT; he was responsible for the partnership with Fenn, and gave that partnership contracts for the building of street railways he was financing in Dallas.

After Pierre and his cousins, Alfred Irenee and Thomas Coleman Du Pont, acquired the family enterprise on the death of the senior partner in 1902, completely reorganized it, and acquired through merger 70 percent of the nation's explosives industry, Irenee Du Pont's firm received the contracts to build the new company's offices.

Late in 1903, Du Pont joined the new E. I du Pont de Nemours Powder Company. His first job was to appraise the assets of all the firms involved in the merger. After serving for two years in the construction division of the black powder operating department, he joined the treasurer's department. There he was responsible for carrying out the procedures devised by Pierre to coordinate, and to assure a continuous review of, long-term capital appropriations, which is a most critical task for the continuing health and growth of a large industrial enterprise. At the same time Du Pont became the chairman of the new operative committee, which consisted of department directors, and was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company. After a three-year stint as the head of the development department, Du Pont became assistant general manager.

When Pierre du Pont took command of the company in 1914, Irenee was named chairman of the executive committee, the company's top decision-making body. A few months later he joined with his brothers and three other close associates to purchase T. Coleman's shares - a purchase that assured their branch of the family complete control of the company. As chairman of the Executive Committee until 1919, Du Pont was responsible for carrying out the massive expansion of plant and facilities in order to meet the war orders.

In April 1919, Du Pont took Pierre's place as president. He opposed the introduction of a multidivision form, a creation of younger managers, until the depression of 1920-1921 made the need for organizational change clear. His contribution to the family empire was that of a manager who handled often rapidly changing operational problems with great skill, but had neither the organizational nor the entrepreneurial talents of his brother Pierre or his cousin Coleman, the men who built the modern E. I du Pont de Nemours and Company.

After he turned the presidency over to his brother Lammot in 1926, Du Pont spent relatively little time on business or industrial activities, except to keep a close watch on the family investments. He remained vice-chairman of the Board of Directors until becoming honorary chairman in 1940, and he continued to serve on the Du Pont Finance Committee and the Finance Committee of the General Motors Corporation, in which the Du Pont Company had made a substantial investment in 1917.

He joined the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment in 1926, and in 1934 was a founder and funder of the American Liberty League. More outgoing and gregarious than his brother, Du Pont played a larger part in the affairs of both these associations than did Pierre. But much of his time was spent enlarging his valuable mineral collection, expanding his estate in Cuba, Xanadu, and enjoying the great house at Granouge in the rolling Delaware countryside, where he died.

Achievements

• The major achievement of Irenee Du Pont's administration was the successful diversification into chemical products other than explosives, including paints, dyes, film, Fabrikoid, cellophane, and rayon. The complicated administrative needs created by diversification led to another achievement for which his presidency is remembered - the adoption in 1921 of a new multidivision form of organization. This institutional invention became the standard for the management of large industrial enterprises throughout the world.

Membership

Du Pont was a member of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment.

Connections

On February 1, 1900, Du Pont married Irene Sophie du Pont, a second cousin; they had nine children.

Father:

Lammot Du Pont

Mother:

Mary (Belin) Du Pont

Brother:

Pierre Du Pont

Partner:

William H. Fenn

Brother:

Lammot Du Pont

References

• DUPONT: The autobiography of an American enterprise published in commemoration of its 150th anniversary.
• The du Ponts of Delaware
• The Dupont Dynasty
• DuPont: One Hundred and Forty Years