Page 45 - The Hunt - Spring/Summer 2023

is gone, Longwood Gardens is purchasing Granogue and will keep the property as open space.
“I remember the view. It went on and on,” du Pont told me.
“On a clear day, you could see to Downingtown. There were no trees as there are today. It was all open farmland.”
Given the family nickname Brip,
du Pont graduated from the Tower
Hill School his father helped found.
He attended Dartmouth College, studying chemistry. His sophomore
year, he spent $40 on a 1918
Cadillac found in a salvage yard.
“I was working on that Cadillac one autumn afternoon when I realized I didn’t like chemistry,” du Pont once said. “That changed my life.”
Brip transferred to MIT and took up mechanical engineering. He graduated in 1943 and was hired three years later by Nathaniel C. Wyeth, the elder brother of Andrew, to work for DuPont. He made his way through the company’s leadership
ranks, serving in a variety of positions before retiring in 1978. His served on DuPont’s board of directors until 1990. When asked about running the family business, he replied with his typical wit: “I, as a stockholder, would’ve objected to me as president.”
Brip loved cars, filling his garage with vintage automobiles and motorcycles. In a
Du Pont at Widener University’s president’s dinner in 2010.
movie short made of him with his motorcycle at Granogue, he rides through the halls of the home, pulls up to the camera and says, “My mother told me to always wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, but she also said to never wear a hat in the house.”
Brip was known for driving a cream-colored Chevette and going to his club’s Tuesday dinner and ordering a hot dog. One reporter noted du Pont’s exuberance in showing him that his sports coat had come from Value City rather than
Brooks Brothers. He frequently brought his Cadillac and Oldsmobile to various events, including Point-to-Point at Winterthur.
Winterthur had belonged to his cousin, Henry Francis du Pont, so his connection to the property was long-standing. He and his family—including Barbara, his wife
of 77 years—were a staple at the races. When Winterthur started lifetime rights
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