Du Pont, T. Coleman (Thomas Coleman), 1863-1930

In 1902 the control of the hundred year old Du Pont Company passed into the hands of three younger du Pont cousins, T. Coleman, Pierre S., and Alfred I.T. Coleman du Pont, who became president after the 1902 incorporation, had spent the previous two decades involved in the coal, iron, and street railway industries of Kentucky and Western Pennsylvania. His major investment was in The Johnson Company of Johnstown, Pa., and Lorain, Ohio, to which he introduced modern engineering principles and management techniques. When T. Coleman du Pont assumed the presidency of Du Pont, the company was technologically backward and leaderless. The three cousins transformed the firm into a modern science-based corporation. After taking office as president of the Du Pont Company, T. Coleman du Pont proceeded to acquire control over more than 100 competing explosives manufacturers. This process culminated in the formation of the so-called "powder trust" which led to a 1908 anti-trust suit by the federal government. After losing this suit Du Pont was forced to divest itself of the Atlas and Hercules Powder Companies. Once the consent decree was signed, T. Coleman du Pont stepped down and Pierre S. du Pont became president of the company.

T. Coleman du Pont was born in Louisville, Ky., on December 11, 1863, the eldest son of Antoine Bidermann and Ellen Coleman du Pont. After graduating from M.I.T. he was sent by his father to the family coal mines in western Kentucky, where he learned the business from the bottom up, working as a miner before gradually rising to superintendent. In 1893 he left the Central Coal & Iron Company and became general manager of the Johnson Company's steel plant at Johnstown, Pa. Subsequently, he promoted electric street railways, and in 1902 joined with his cousins Alfred I. and Pierre S. du Pont to reorganize the Du Pont Company, of which he was president until March 1915. He then sold his Du Pont stock and devoted the last phase of his business career to investments in hotels and office buildings. He was senator from Delaware in 1921-1928. T. Coleman du Pont died on November 11, 1930.