Francis I. du Pont (1873-1942), chemist, inventor, stockbroker, was born at the Hagley House near Wilmington, Delaware. He was the eldest of ten children born of Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) and Elise Wigfall Simons (1849-1919), and was the great-grandson of Eleuthere Irenee du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. At age 16, Francis entered the University of Pennsylvania but soon withdrew due to an eye injury he suffered in a laboratory accident. In 1895, he graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University and went to work at Carney's Point Plant where he was named superintendent as became a member of the company's board, executive committee, and finance committee.

Within a year, he left Carney's Point to establish an experimental laboratory in a small coverted cotton mill on Brandywine Creek, which was destroyed by a fire in 1906. After rebuilding, he directed the Experimental Station until 1916. Between 1899 and 1915, 43 patents were issued to him for inventions and improvements in explosives chemistry and engineering. By 1942, over 100 patents were issued to Francis, with those of his later years for inventions resulting from research and engineering in petrochemicals and the develoment of synthetic rubber.

In 1931, Francis bought a seat on the New York stock exchange and later that year founded the partnership of Francis I. du Pont and Company, stockbrokers, with offices at One Wall Street, New York. This new venture made necessary dividing his time between Wilmington and New York; in the operations of the Delaware Chemical Engineering Company he was assisted by his son Hubert, and in New York by his sons Edmond and Alfred Rhett.

The only known publication of Francis I. du Pont is an undated 12-page pamphlet entitled "Government by the People," advocating the use of the direct ballot and the right of initiative and referendum. Francis was a member of the Episcopal Church, the American Chemical Society, the Chemists Club of New York, Phi Kappa Sigma, the American Philosophical Society, Knights of Pythias, and the Wilmington Country Club.

In 1942 at the age of 69, Francis died in New York City hospital from a blood infection, streptococcus viridans. He was buried in the du Pont family burial ground.