Pete du Pont, the scion of one of America’s wealthiest families and a two-term Republican governor of Delaware who presided over an economic revival in his debt-ridden state and in 1988 ran for the presidency, died on Saturday at his home in Wilmington, Del. Pierre Samuel du Pont IV, known as Pete, was the great-great-great grandson of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, who came ashore with his father, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a Huguenot royalist refugee from revolutionary France, on Jan. 1, 1800. Like most of his male ancestors, Pete du Pont was educated to be an engineer. After earning his law degree, Mr. du Pont dutifully joined the family enterprise, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, first in marketing, then as a quality-control officer, overseeing production of a new magnetic tape, then of testing an aerosol can that sprayed a mix of peanut butter and jelly.

Source: New York Times May 09, 2021 17:03 UTC