DuPuis, Robert Newell, Ph.D.
(VP Research, PM) Vice President of Research for Philip Morris, Inc. from 1955 to 1956. He was Vice President of Research and Development from 1957 to 1959 and on the Board of Directors from 1957 to 1963.Biographical Information:
Robert Newell DuPuis was born in Indianapolis on June 4, 1910, the son of Arthur DuPuis, a garage repairman, and the former Vernie Cox. While he was a young child, the family moved to Waukegan, Illinois, where his father found work as a linotype operator.
DuPuis grew up in Waukegan and enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he earned a bachelor's degree in organic chemistry with high honors. He then pursued graduate studies at New York University, receiving a doctorate in chemistry in 1934. He returned to Chicago to accept a position with Miner Laboratories and on June 25, 1935, he married the former Eleanor Thomsen.
DuPuis became involved in military research during World War II and after the war he accepted a position as research and development manager of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., in Racine, Wisconsin. Five years later he moved to Richmond, Virginia, to become director of research and development for Philip Morris. DuPuis spent eight years at Philip Morris and earned promotion to the post of Vice President for Research and Development. But it was a tumultuous time to be a tobacco scientist and DuPuis was soon caught up in the upheaval. In 1955, he was interviewed by Edward R. Murrow for his See It Now show and promised, "If we do find any [components in tobacco smoke] that we consider harmful, and so far we have not, we'll remove these from smoke and still retain the pleasure of your favorite cigarette."
For the remainder of the decade, DuPuis headed Philip Morris's efforts to research those questions, but before long there were signs of philosophical differences. In 1958 he called on the TIRC to fund projects more directly related to smoking and health. In a September 1959 memo to company president Joe Cullman he asked for more freedom to "[c]orrelate our chemical knowledge with medical knowledge" and elaborated as follows: "We must consider not only what is technically sound, but what is forced on us by the press, enemies and competitors … The health problem overrides all of our research work and is probably the most important and most difficult problem facing our industry." This memo was used as evidence in the Cipollone case, and other DuPuis memos have been cited as evidence that Philip Morris's awareness of the health risks of smoking did not match the company's public statements.
Intriguingly, DuPuis tendered his resignation from Philip Morris only three months after writing the memo to Cullman. His resignation was submitted on December 29, 1959 (effective January 31, 1960), and DuPuis then moved to New York to accept the post of vice president for research at General Foods Corporation. He directed the company's research activities for the next seven years, adding patents in the food and tobacco industries. He also remained on the board of directors of Philip Morris during these years.
In 1967 DuPuis returned to Richmond to head the W. J. Barrow Research Laboratory at the Virginia State Library. The laboratory, which conducted research on document preservation and restoration and paper deacidification and lamination process, had been left without a director by the death of its namesake, William James Barrow (1904-1967). Under DuPuis's leadership, the laboratory investigated the potential of morpholine to lift the pH and pioneered the use of morpholine "vapor phase deacidification" tests.
After retirement Robert N. DuPuis remained in Richmond, serving as a business consultant to the Barrow Foundation and the First & Merchants National Bank. He died there on July 8, 1986, and was survived by two children, numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and by his wife Eleanor, who lived until 2007.
Sources:
Nicholson Baker, Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (New York: Random House, 2001).
Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America (New York: Basic Books, 2007).
"Dr. Dupuis, Ex-Business Executive, Dies," Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 9, 1986.
"Eleanor T. DuPuis" (obituary), Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 14, 2007.
Richard Kluger, Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris (New York: Vintage Books, 1996).