Scientists, researchers, engineers, techies, marketing folks, and consultants of every stripe - some left DuPont because of downsizings and restructurings, some to join businesses that DuPont sold. Others wanted to pursue an idea or follow a dream.
"Because they were on the leading edge of their technology," Russ said of the company, "they had more people spinning off from them."
Why did people and businesses stay? Because of DuPont, which remained locally managed, influential in the state of Delaware, and home still to a large number of du Pont family members, Russ said. "I think that is different from other large companies. That leaves a deeper set of roots than would be common."
Among the best-known former DuPonters in this area are Frank Baldino Jr., a DuPont pharmacologist who founded Cephalon Inc., and Carol A. Ammon, who bought a line of older pain medicines from DuPont Merck and created Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. Wilbert "Bill" Gore was a DuPont scientist in the 1950s with ideas for using Teflon in products. He founded W.L. Gore & Associates, which developed Teflon for such uses as insulated wire and cable and Gore-Tex - a windproof, waterproof fabric laminated with spun Teflon used by sports enthusiasts and consumers the world over.
DuPont evolved from a gunpowder factory in 1802 on the banks of Delaware's Brandywine River into a manufacturer of chemicals, then plastics - inventing nylon, Rayon, Lycra and Teflon. DuPont bought an oil company and, a decade later, started a pharmaceuticals business.
In 1981, after buying Conoco oil, DuPont had 160,000 employees. Today, the $27 billion company employs 60,000.
