Still, du Pont was one of the last family members to reach one of the highest levels of management in the DuPont Co. The family who had led the DuPont Co. for most of the 20th century eventually ended its control in the late 1970s.
Du Pont was once considered one of the richest men in the world, according to various Forbes magazine rankings over the years. He brushed aside the reports and told The News Journal the $525 million net worth which Forbes attributed to him and his family in Montchanin in 1998 was based on money “generated generations ago.”
When a News Journal reporter interviewed him in 2000, du Pont was more than delighted to show off the tag inside the blazer he was wearing. It wasn’t from Brooks Brothers. He bought the jacket at Value City, which, at that time, was a well-known discount store.
He lived at Granogue, the hilltop estate and mansion with a mile-long driveway and 30 rooms in northern New Castle County, which can be seen along points of Smith Bridge Road. It is sometimes referred to as the symbol of Chateau Country, the name for Delaware’s most exclusive region and for generations the home of extended members of the du Pont family.
The century-old house was built in 1923 by du Pont’s father. The mansion has 11 bedrooms for family members and six for live-in employees. Walls are lined with paintings by family friends, like Maxfield Parrish, and Rembrandt Peale’s original painting of DuPont founder Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours hangs over a hearth.
Du Pont was proud of an oak-paneled music room, home to an Aeolian pipe organ housed in a chamber below the floor. The music is controlled by a computer, much like a player piano, but sometimes du Pont brought in musicians to play the organ. He enjoyed sharing the organ’s music with others.
He and his wife Barbara also were known for opening the grounds of their estate to local organizations and groups for fundraisers.
A 5K run and walk called Granogue & Bach were held in the 1990s to raise money for Brandywine Baroque. Musicians played Bach compositions for participants at the finish line. In recent years, the Beau Biden Foundation has hosted trail runs on the estate with more than 800 participants.
President Joe Biden, who attended the run when he was vice president, had raced motorbikes on the estate with Irénée when Biden was serving in the Senate. Biden’s sister Valerie once lived on the Granogue property
A passion for car collecting
Du Pont told The News Journal he was a “motorhead” and enjoyed collecting motorcycles and automobiles which he stored in his 12-garage car.
Over the years, his collection included everything from a 1980 two-door Chevette hatchback to a 1936 Oldsmobile coupe his father gave him on his 16th birthday.
He frequently brought his 1918 Cadillac to various events, including Winterthur Museum’s annual Point to Point steeplechase races and to the Marshall Steam Museum at Auburn Valley State Park in Yorklyn.
Du Pont found the car at a salvage yard in 1939 when he was a student at Dartmouth College. He said he paid $40 for it and joked he spent as much on immediate repairs. He said the car once was owned by actors Frank Fay and Barbara Stanwyck.
Du Pont was known for upholding his family’s legacy and served on DuPont’s board of directors until 1990 and worked on various projects as a trustee for Wilmington University and Longwood Gardens, the former home of his Uncle Pierre.
Despite the clannish nature of the family, another tradition du Pont had long upheld was never stepping foot on the Nemours estate of Alfred I. du Pont in Rockwood. It was due to a historic rift that happened a few years after cousins Pierre, Alfred and T. Coleman du Pont banded together to buy the DuPont Co. in 1902. Pierre and Alfred had a falling out about control and Alfred lost his role in the company.
When Alfred built his Nemours estate, he installed a 10-foot stone wall topped with shards of broken glass to surround the majestic mansion inside. Supposedly, he said he built the wall with the glass shards around his estate “to keep out intruders, mainly of the name of du Pont,” according to Marquis James’s 1941 book “Alfred I. duPont: The Family Rebel.”
Irénée Jr. told The News Journal in 2000 that his father was on his brother Pierre’s side and gave his children strict instructions to never step foot inside the Nemours gates.
Du Pont obeyed for years, but apparently changed his mind, and in 2008 he told The News Journal “it’s a great place — if you like that kind of thing.”
He was predeceased by his eight older sisters; his daughter, Susanne; his son, Irénée du Pont, III; and Barbara, his wife of 77 years.
Du Pont is survived by his daughter-in-law, Eugenie Collison du Pont, and his daughters Irene Light (Tom) of Lime Rock, Connecticut; Cynthia Tobias (Terry) of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; Sally Quinn (Rob) of Winchester, Massachusetts; Grace Engbring (Paul) of Telluride, Colorado; 13 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.
