Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1959-06-19
w. S. Carpenter, Jr.
Heads u of . Trustees
Continued from page one)

lcOnClnued from page One)
kins, president of the university
said, "Mr. Carpenters thorough
knowledge of delaware and its
people, his rich experience in in
dustry and his proven interest in
higher education at Cornell and
desirable and well qualified lead
er of our board of trustees"
Mr.. Carpenter is a former presi-
dent of the Du Pont Company and
now serves as chairman of the
board and chairman of the COM
pany's finance committee.
AS president. he directed Du
Points participation in the war
production program in which the
company designed, built, and Oper-
ated a score of war plants, rang
ing from relatively small produc-
ing units to the unprecedented
Hanford Engineer Works of the
atomic energy program, from which
the company withdrew at the end
of the war. These special tasks for
the government were in addition
to peak production schedules in
Du Points own plants.
Mr.. Carpenter was born on jan
uary s, 1888, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa,
the son of Walter S. Carpenter
and Belle Morgan Carpenter. He
attended the public schools in his
home city, was graduate from Wy
oming Seminary in Kingston, Pa,
in 1906, and that year entered Cor
nell University.
During the summer vacations of
1907, 1908 and 1909, he worked at
the Du Pont dynamite plant at
Gibbstown, N. j., and the smoke
less powder plant at Penns Grove,
N. ]. Shortly after returning for
brother, r. r. M. Carpenter, who
was associated with the Du Pont
Company, advised him of an i'm
mediate opening with the company
in connection with it's activities in
Chile. In 1911, Mr.. Carpenter re-
turned to Wilmington and became
a member of the staff of the de-
velopmet department.
He was made director of the
department April 1, 1917, and,
on April 4, 1919, he was elected
a member of the company's Board
of Directors and of the Executive
Committee. On April 30, that year,
he was elected vice president in
charge of the development depart
ment, He was 81 years old at the
time.
On January 10, two days after
his 34th birthday, Mr.. Carpenter
was elected treasurer of the COM
pany, and on November 20 of the
same year he became a member
of the finance committee. At 33 he
was appointed the vice president
in charge of all financial matters,
as we'll as vice chairman of the
executive committee. On March II,
1880, Mr.. Carpenter was elected
chairman of the finance committee
continuing until his election as
president. He was again elected
chairman on February Is, 1859.
Mr.. Carpenter is a director of
Christiana Securities Company and
has been a director of General
Motors Corporation since 1927 and
during substantially all of that
period has been a member of it's
finance committee. He is also a
director of the Wilmington Trust
Company and Diamond State Tele-
phone Company. He is a trustee
of the Wyoming Seminary, Kings
ton, Pa, and the Sloan Foundation,
New York. He holds the honorary
degree of Doctor of Science a.
warded by the University of South
Caroline in 1862 and was awarded
the Spanish Order of Alphonso x,
the Wise, in 1857, in recognition
of his phflanthropic and cultural
activities Spain.
Mr.. Carpenter married Miss Mary
Wootten of Laurel, Del, in 1914,
She died in 1949. Mr.. Carpenter has
two sons: w. Sam Carpenter, Bird,
and Edmund N. Carpenter, II. The
Carpenter home is at Seventeenth
Street and Risin Sun Lane in Will
mington.