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...monthly meetings of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. board, nine of whose 24 members reside in the House of Du Pont through bloodline or marriage, tend to be family as well as corporate councils. At last week's session, family scandal and a series of reverses in the company's fortunes combined to cause change at the top of the world's largest chemical manufacturer. At the ever-so-gentle hinting of other Du Fonts, Chairman Lammot du Pont Copeland Sr., 65, declined to stand for re-election and also stepped down from the finance...
Dizzying Empire. Copeland moved out, a Du Pont spokesman said, "because personal affairs are taking more and more of his time." Six months ago, his 38-year-old son Lammot ("Motsey") du Pont Copeland Jr. petitioned for one of the most spectacular personal bankruptcies on record. He listed assets of $26 million and liabilities totaling $55 million. The younger Copeland's chief business associate, Lebanese-born Thomas A. Shaheen Jr., has been indicted by a Chicago grand jury on charges of receiving kickbacks on loans from the barbers' union pension fund and others. Much of the money allegedly...
...deep financial trouble. Copeland holds a lien on Lammot Jr.'s real property, including a $500,000 home, making it unavailable to other creditors. Copeland's financial worries have been further complicated by the near failure of a family-connected stock brokerage, Francis I. du Pont & Co. Various family members and their friends are investors in the firm, and its troubles cost them at least $6 million (see following story...
Expensive Failures. Besides his family problems, Copeland faced a good deal of corporate discouragement. Under his leadership, Du Pont suffered a serious erosion of its pre-eminence in chemicals, even though the company is still the biggest in the field (1970 sales: $3.6 billion). Du Pont leaders have long dreamed of producing "another nylon," but the company has introduced few notably profitable products in the past decade. Several that did appear turned out to be expensive failures. Corfam, the synthetic leather, is being phased out after an investment of $100 million. Other disappointments: an antiflu pill called Symmetrel...
...most manufacturers have shifted away from conventional rayon to polyester. They have also adopted fiber glass for belting because of its light weight and great strength. The big beneficiaries have been the producers of fiber glass and polyester-notably Owens Corning and PPG Industries. To compete with them, Du Pont has recently come in with a superstrong synthetic called Fiber B, but at $2 a pound it is much costlier than fiber glass, which goes for 780 a pound...