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

Brookstone

Brookstone is a chain of retail stores in the United States. Its first store was opened in 1973 in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Its headquarters are currently located in Merrimack, New Hampshire....

, 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 his father was killed in action during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Beaumont and his mother moved to the United States in 1919, where she 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

Bud Fisher

Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher was an American cartoonist who created Mutt and Jeff, the first successful daily comic strip in the United States....

, the creator of the comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 Mutt and Jeff

Mutt and Jeff

Mutt and Jeff was a long-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 newspaper strip featuring recurring characters in multiple panels on a six-day-a-week...

, 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

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1938.http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=pierre-s-de-beaumont&pid=148427874

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

Packard

Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...

  and General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

. He later worked for Apex Electrical Manufacturing and Bostitch Inc.http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=pierre-s-de-beaumont&pid=148427874

During World War II, he served in the United States Naval Reserve.http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=pierre-s-de-beaumont&pid=148427874

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 Brookstone

Brookstone

Brookstone is a chain of retail stores in the United States. Its first store was opened in 1973 in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Its headquarters are currently located in Merrimack, New Hampshire....

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

Death

He died at his home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=pierre-s-de-beaumont&pid=148427874