tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19217611.post9085510385677273554..comments2024-03-28T09:13:04.373-04:00Comments on KIKO'S HOUSE: It's The End Of An Error As Du Pont & Dow Chemical MergeShaun Mullenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14964214385216513188noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19217611.post-60863314781143399002016-10-02T05:15:23.003-04:002016-10-02T05:15:23.003-04:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Bloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07287821785570247118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19217611.post-87782445719143912762015-12-12T07:31:55.500-05:002015-12-12T07:31:55.500-05:00The trail of anguish of those no longer employed b...The trail of anguish of those no longer employed by DuPont is long and ugly and about to get longer and uglier.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19217611.post-85287217540321538532015-12-11T20:55:57.551-05:002015-12-11T20:55:57.551-05:00Well, well, I can relate to most of what Shaun wri...Well, well, I can relate to most of what Shaun writes here, being of a certain age and having grown up in Delaware in a "DuPont family" (but not, for sure, THE duPont family.<br /><br />I haven't been at all close to the "Company" since the mid-90's but it was clear at least from the mid-80s that DuPont was evaporating. Was this inevitable? I don't think so, in the sense that the German and Japanese chemical biggies have done very well for themselves while DuPont's been evaporating. Ultimately, I blame it on a bad management culture--a culture of inward focus and self-serving incompetence. And, of course, the stupidity, irresponsibility, and immorality of DuPont's environmental policies.<br /><br />Still, very mixed feelings. What does it mean for Delaware? It could be argued that DuPont provided a certain core direction to the state which was objectionable in some ways but crucial in others. I need to think some more about that....<br /><br />Anybody remember the Stooge when Irenee DuPont was running it?Alan Mullerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903138982604085869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19217611.post-41048446289347233382015-12-11T18:53:33.681-05:002015-12-11T18:53:33.681-05:00End of an era not errorEnd of an era not errorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19217611.post-24788819261065332622015-12-11T15:37:40.614-05:002015-12-11T15:37:40.614-05:00I, too, am a 'survivor' of a Wilmington Du...I, too, am a 'survivor' of a Wilmington DuPont household, and my dad was, I imagine, similarly stymied by his lack of a college sheepskin, as he regularly warned that I would need one. He became a middle manager of a sales accounting team in Textile Fibers, which kept us in Dacron shirts and such, but the company's safety ethos also brought that awareness into the household as well. Still, when my newspaper career made me cognizant of the environmental toxicity of Freon, I recall my dad citing DuPont "safety bulletins" that sought to dismiss such research with assurances that the naysayers were commiting bad science. When the company finally admitted its culpability by halting the production of the refrigerant, that corporate lie caused my dad a palpable loss of faith, almost as significant to his psychic crisis when he heard the details and, more potent to him, the profanity and cold-bloodedness of the Nixon tapes. I did encounter a few of the du Pont clan: As a tender youth, I used to jump the high cement wall around Willie's estate next to Mt. Pleasant High to smoke cigs and down an illegal beer or two on grounds that Willie's will eventually bequeathed as a state park. His kid was also a camper at a Y summer camp where I was a counselor. As a reporter, I met and covered Pete (Pierre IV, there's one of those funny French names!) both while he was Delaware governor and when he ran briefly for president, and even got an invite to a Christmas shindig at his toned-down (by family standards) but still very comfortably opulent home, where I spent much of the evening in his expansive library. And you, Shaun, will, of course, recall the nights we spent frolicking in full-moon wonderment on the grounds of the original Du Pont powder mill at Hagley, an estate with Roman columns and carefully groomed gardens. I think I may have also gotten one of my earliest tastes of sex on yet another grand du Pont estate, among the hidden trees and byways of Longwood Gardens.Hugh Cutlernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19217611.post-84353712354086338392015-12-11T12:59:39.820-05:002015-12-11T12:59:39.820-05:00As a closely-held company, Du Pont funded the poli...As a closely-held company, Du Pont funded the political pecadillos of the Du Pont family, which were often in the neighborhood of those we associate with the names Adelson and Koch, if not Lindbergh<br />joel haneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11946546309257239019noreply@blogger.com