I don't recall why but for some reason, I was reminded recently of a guy I respected back in the 1980's. Richard C. duPont, Jr. or "Kippy" (as my grandfather referred to him), Mr. duPont as was appropriate for me to call him, and his immediate family were vacation neighbors of ours where I grew up. Although I don't recall exactly when he lived there, as a kid I delivered newspapers on weekends between 1980 and 1990 and for a few years, Mr. duPont was a loyal customer of mine. Every weekend he was there (which I recall may have been a couple weekends a month) he'd leave a generous tip and any time I saw him, he was friendly. It was years later that I heard from someone that he died. although I don't know if I ever found out the circumstances behind his death.

So ultimately I know little about Kip duPont and I wasn't able to find much online except that he has a boathouse named for him at St. Andrews School in Delaware and that he was involved and started Summit Aviation in Middletown, DE. I have some memories, but I was a kid then and that was 15-20 years ago now so my recollections may not be 100% accurate. This is what little I remember:

I remember him flying into a small grass airstrip across from our development in southern Delaware (Mariner's Cove/Cozy Cove on Long Neck Road, to be exact). The reason you always knew it was him was because of this neat yellow airplane he flew. It was a prop plane and I'm told it was a WWII plane back then. It was so loud that it must have been powerful. I also remember one year delivering papers to his vacation home and when he answered the door he handed me a large, expensive box of fireworks that he flew up from Florida, I believe. That was the coolest 4th of July ever. We had everything. I must have been several hundred dollars worth. Gheez, I was only his paperboy! Anyway, I much appreciated the kindness and have always thought nicely of him.

I recently received a handheld GPS system for my birthday and have gotten into the GPS sport of geocaching, where people all over the world hide momentos and other neat items in a weatherproof container and leave the GPS coordinates on a website (www.geocaching.com). Anyone can search for these caches and if you find them, you can take something but you have to leave something in return. You also leave an entry in the log book. For my first cache, I've decided to make it aviation-related and dedicate it to Kip duPont.

For more information on this geo cache, visit the dedicated page.

I did a search on Google and found mention of a Richard C. duPont, Jr. who started Summit Aviation in 1959. My guess is this would make him in his 50's in mid-1985, which seems right to me. If this is true, then his wife is Caroline duPont Prickett. I did find some mention here (link is mostly for my own benefit, else I'd forget how I found it).

Written 05-08-02