Alfred I. du Pont
(1864-1935)

Died aged c. 71

Alfred I. duPont, was born in 1864 in Wilmington, Delaware. He attended MIT but left to pursue a career in his family’s gunpowder making business. He designed and invented new machinery for the business, holding more than 200 patents. In 1926, duPont and his wife, Jessie Ball, retired to Florida. Here, he helped build the infrastructure of the state through the acquisition of land, financial institutions and the building of roads and industries. In 1929 duPont helped quell a run on Jacksonville’s Florida National Bank by putting $15 million of his own resources into the institution. Later he opened banks throughout the state, including branches in Lakeland and Bartow. In 1927 he created the Gulf Coast Highways Association as a lobbying agency to garner federal and state funds for highway construction, particularly in the panhandle region. After his death in 1935 his wife Jessie devoted herself to fulfilling the couple’s philanthropic mission.

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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.

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