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Revision as of 22:28, 8 July 2009 by BehalfJohnduPont (talk | contribs) (→Biography)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)John Eleuthère du Pont (born November 22, 1938) is a member of the prominent American Du Pont family.
Biography
John duPont was born in Philadelphia, PA, and is the son of William duPont, Jr. and Jean Liseter Austin (1897–1988). William and Jean's wedding was billed as the "Wedding of the Century". They were wed as the New Year started, January 1, 1919 in Rosemont, PA. Jean's father, William Liseter Austin, an executive of Baldwin Loco-motive Works gave the couple more than 242 acres of land as a wedding gift. William duPont Sr. built Liseter Hall on the land for William and Jean in 1922. Liseter Hall was a sumptuous, three-story Georgian mansion.
John's mother's family "the Austins" immigrated to the United States in the early 1800s and the same holds true for his father's family. John is the youngest of four children; he has two older sisters, Jean duPont McConnell and Evelyn duPont Donaldson and an older brother, Henry duPont.
Mr. duPont graduated from Haverford School in 1957. He attended college in Miami, Florida where he studied under and was mentored by Oscar T. Owre, Ph.D. He graduated from the University of Miami in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology. He also has a degree in Natural Science from Villanova University which he received in 1973.
An ornithologist, duPont is credited with the discovery of two dozen species of birds. He has written a number of books on the subject of birds, including: South Pacific Birds, South Sulu Archipelago Birds; an Expedition Report, Birds of Dinagat and Siargao, Philippines; an Expedition Report, and Philippine Birds. Mr. duPont was the second author of Living Volutes: a Monograph of the Recent Volutidae of the World, which he co-wrote with Clifton Stokes Weaver.
He is also a philatelist, and during a 1980 auction anonymously paid $935,000 for one of the rarest stamps in the world, the British Guiana 1856 1c black on magenta.
On September 3, 1983, he married a therapist named Gale Wenk but the marriage was annulled 90 days later.
Mr. duPont is an accomplished athlete and also a coach. He has coached wrestling, swimming, triathlon, track and modern pentathlon. In 1966 he founded the sport of triathlon in the United States. In just 20 years over one million athletes participated in this sport. Mr. duPont is also a competitive wrestler. He wrestled in the world championships in 1990 in Columbia, 1993 in Canada, 1994 in Rome, Italy and 1996 in Bulgaria. Mr. duPont never placed lower than fourth place in any of the championships. He is a two time world champion.
DuPont largely funded a new basketball arena at Villanova University which opened in 1986. Originally, the venue was called duPont Pavilion, but his name was removed from the facility after his conviction. Today, it is called simply The Pavilion. Shortly after duPont was accused of sexually harassing Andre Metzger, his mother died on August 9 1988 at the age of 91. DuPont was never arrested, charged with or able to defend against any sexual harassment charge and former Foxcatcher wrestler Cuvo won’t lend any credence to the homosexuality hoax. “Du Pont just liked the company,” he says. After the death of his mother, du Pont turned his 440 acre estate in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, into a wrestling facility for amateur wrestlers. Du Pont's wrestling team was called "Team Foxcatcher."
David Schultz murder
In 1997 Mr. duPont was convicted of murdering Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz the year before, and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Experts at the trial testified that Mr. duPont suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. On January 26, 1996, Mr. duPont shot Schultz dead at the wrestling facility without apparent provocation and with Schultz's wife among several witnesses. After the shooting, the multimillionaire locked himself in his mansion for two days, while he negotiated with police on the telephone. Police turned off his power, and were able to capture him when he went outside to fix his heater. Expert psychiatric testimony described duPont as a paranoid schizophrenic who believed Schultz was part of an international conspiracy to kill him. He also was paranoid that people were going to break into his house and kill him, which is why he put razor wires in his attic. On February 25, 1997, a jury found him guilty of third degree murder but mentally ill. He was sentenced to 13 to 30 years incarceration and is currently housed at State Correctional Institute-Mercer, a minimum-security institution in the Pennsylvania prison system.
References
- Last hurrah for historic Liseter Hall Farm, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred, September 2005
- IN MEMORIAM: OSCAR T. OWRE, 1917-1990, James A. Kushlan, The Auk 108: 705-708. July 1991
- Rachlin, Harvey (1996). Lucy's Bones, Sacred Stones, and Einstein's Brain: The Remarkable Stories Behind the Great Artifacts of History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era. Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0805064060.
- SILVERBACKS Veterans Wrestling 2008 ARCHIVE, September 28, 2008
- In Memory of a Murder, J.F. Pirro, MainLine Today,Published January 12, 2007 at 12:00 AM
- The Value of Open Space, Save Open Space, Everyting Old is New Again, April 1999
- Heir Sentenced Up to 30 Years For Killing of Olympic Wrestler, New York Times, May 14, 1997
External links
- John du Pont biography at about.com.
- John du Pont biography at NNDB.
- "Du Pont guilty but mentally ill", CNN, February 25, 1997.