Count Wolston Pierre Stuart de Beaumont (August 1, 1915 – December 4, 2010), aka Pete de Beaumont, was an American mechanical engineer who was a founder of

Brookstone Brookstone is a chain of retail stores in the United States and China. It was founded as a mail-order business in 1965, when it started selling items, such as dental clamps and other specialty tools. Its first physical location opened in 1973 i ...

, a chain of specialty stores.

Birth and childhood

He was born in New York City, New York, the only child of Count François de Beaumont (died 1918), a French nobleman, and his American wife, the former Aedita Stuart (1889–1985), a daughter of U. S. diplomat Richard Stuart. The Beaumonts were divorced shortly after their son's birth, and the father was killed in action during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Mother and son moved to the United States in 1919, where the mother pursued a brief career as a stage actress, using the name Gypsy Norman. She also appeared in at least one silent film, Fox Film Corp.'s ''Gentle Julia'' (1923), and wrote a three-act play called ''To Hell with Love''. On 25 October 1925 Aedita de Beaumont married

Bud Fisher Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher (April 3, 1885 – September 7, 1954) was an American cartoonist who created ''Mutt and Jeff'', the first successful daily comic strip in the United States. Early life Born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a merchant, ...

, the creator of the

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

Mutt and Jeff ''Mutt and Jeff'' was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newsp ...

'', but the couple parted after four weeks. Since they were legally separated from 8 February 1927 until Fisher's death in 1954 and did not divorce, the rights to the strip passed to Aedita de Beaumont (as she continued to be known) and then to her son.

Education and career

After attending private schools in the United States, Canada, and England, Pierre de Beaumont earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 193

He began his career in the yacht building and automotive industries, working at companies including

Packard Packard or Packard Motor Car Company was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958. One of the "Thr ...

and

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

. He later worked for Apex Electrical Manufacturing and Bostitch In

During World War II, he served in the United States Naval Reserv

Marriages

Pierre de Beaumont was married to: *Barbara Anne Longstreth, whom he married on 29 August 1942. They divorced prior to 1960 and had no children. *Mary Deland Kelley (née Robbins, 1933–2001), whom he married in 1960. By this marriage he had three stepchildren.

Company

Mary and Pierre de Beaumont founded

in 1965 and sold it in 1980. The company is named for their farm in the

Berkshires The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...

Philanthropy

In 1998 Pierre de Beaumont founded the

de Beaumont Foundation The de Beaumont Foundation is a charitable foundation in Bethesda, Maryland. It was created in 1998 by Pierre S. (Pete) de Beaumont, the founder of the Brookstone Company. The foundation is led by Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH, MA, whose previous expe ...

, which focuses on public health.

Death

He died at his home in

Manchester-by-the-Sea Manchester-by-the-Sea (also known simply as Manchester, its name prior to 1989) is a coastal town on Cape Ann, in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is known for scenic beaches and vista points. According to the 2020 population ...

, Massachusett

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Beaumont, Pierre 1915 births 2010 deaths Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni Counts of France American mechanical engineers American businesspeople in retailing Comics people People from Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts