Victor duPont left a large vacuum in Loudoun County and beyond when died September 8th, 2009 from complications after a fall.

"I miss him so much," said Barbara, his wife of twelve years. "But I was so lucky to have twelve years with Victor. I learned so much from him, and, believe me, there was never a dull moment."

Jim Wiley and his brother Lewis grew up with Vic and his brother, Mike. They spent hundreds of days together from the very earliest days of their lives.

Jim and Victor were about the same age, and Lewis Wiley and Michael duPont were close to the same age. They made perfect companions and thoroughly enjoyed the many pleasures and pastimes afforded in the Loudoun of their youth.

"Vic was a good friend," Jim Wiley continued. "If there is one thing I miss more than any other, it's being able to pick up the telephone and share things with him. He had a big heart and he was very generous, with his time and so much more.

"But there were things one had to be mindful of with Vic.

"For instance, when a fight broke out, you always wanted to be on Vic's side," Jim explained. "I must admit that I was in quite a few fights with Vic, but always on his side. That's where you wanted to be if you wanted to win."

Victor duPont was 6'2" and of a very "serious' stature.

According to friends and family, he loved the land and was dedicated to its future.

Brian Pope, who worked with him at Glenwood Park for years, described Victor as "very quiet when I first met him at Chuck Hoovler's request."

"Vic was all dressed up in his cold weather gear and because he was so quiet, I didn't know if we'd get on… That was when Chuck was in the process of handing Glenwood over to Victor, or visa versa."

It didn't take long for both men to realize that they had many common interests. They both loved to work with crops and cattle, and the longer they spent together the more they shared a love of preserving Glenwood.

"We both had a dry, some would say warped, sense of humor.

"Early on, even I didn't know if he was joking or not. But then, I learned to recognize a glint in his eye and knew he'd gotten the best of me. Vic knew there was more than one way to skin a cat, and he delighted in getting the best of you one way or another."

As a Glenwood Trustee, Victor duPont worked in a hands-on manner. If the grass needed cutting, he cut it. If the office was going to rack and ruin, he'd agree with Brian, who'd been trying to clean and paint it, that a new one was in order.

Lewis Wiley, also a very close friend of Victor's, remembered the early days as a time when "…we were all just boys, getting into whatever devilment we could, with some enthusiasm.

"I think Vic was about 15 when his grandmother gave him and his brother Mike, motorcycles. No one had licenses, but we had a fine time traveling the back roads between Unison and Upperville."

Although this foursome did not go to university together, they stayed in close touch and, when they all came back to Loudoun, their lives continued to be closely intertwined.

"Vic walked onto the football team at VPI," Lewis recounted.

"It did not amuse him that, when he made the team, and was to have a scholarship, the university decided that as he was a duPont, that wouldn't be necessary. It made him very angry. He thought it was unfair."

Those who knew Victor duPont considered him a dedicated farmer and a very good friend.

"He always had time to listen," Barbara remembered. "And he always had a story to add to the discussion."

"Vic was a good friend, and we had many good times together" Lewis Wiley added.

"Age slows us all down," he continued. "Vic was a tall man, the kind of man men liked. He was a rugged individual and women thought he was wonderful. We went to many dances at Buchanan Hall with Chauncey Brown's Band. I don't seem to have as many debutante invitations as we used to have, but we did have fun."

As a steward of the land and as a futurist, Victor duPont had few peers.

"Vic was an innovative farmer," according to Brian Pope.

"If something wasn't right, Vic would find a way to fix it, and he was personally involved in the change. He had novel ways of solving problems. You have to be able to do that if you're a farmer.

"I could always tell that Vic and Jim and Lewis were close friends. They were such tricksters that they could communicate almost without speaking. Sometimes, one might feel you were being picked on a bit… until you understood and appreciated the joke."

Victor duPont had a large group of friends. He was not the gentleman farmer who lived in the big house on the hill and let others do the work.

"Vic was farming for the future," Pope emphasized. "He was concerned about how what he was doing that day would affect all the days ahead. He really was farming for his family and for his children and for the future."

He was exceptionally loyal according to Jim Wiley.

"There was a point when I had a cast on my leg and my bother kicked me. Vic picked him up and threw him through a second-floor window for that. Probably everyone knows that story by now, but, as I said, he was a very loyal friend."

As Brian Pope said, "I quickly learned how much his friendship meant to me when he died. The way he died was so unfair. I spoke to him as he was being released, and I could tell he didn't want to live if was fundamentally compromised as a man. That to me is the mark of a real man. I miss him."

Barbara duPont remembered when she met Victor.

"We met at Palmerstone where he was showing property and I was getting on my horse that I kept there. We had a long conversation. Six months later, we were married.

"They broke the mold with Vic. There is no question in my mind that he would not have wanted to live a full life. My son, who was twelve when we married, came immediately when he was hospitalized and helped us get home before he died.

"Vic never lost his humor and was able to see his close friends before he left. I am so grateful that we had twelve good years together.

"He loved to be outside, nothing made him happier. He was a major recycler and, believe me, we recycled everything. After going to the dump, he would always treat me to a very greasy breakfast. Our prize for doing good work."

"We couldn't go anywhere, from Purcellville west, without constant stories being told by places we passed and people we'd meet….. "The old man (Victor's father) and I farmed hay there one summer… he'd say.

"I learned so much about Loudoun County's growth from him."

Victor was an active member of The Planter's Club in Leesburg.

"They met the first Wednesday of every month at Johnson's House of Beef in Leesburg," Barbara recalled. "They were all about saving and protecting the land. Vic was passionate about that."

She misses him terribly. As do so many of his friends who will never replace the friendship he gave them.

"He was a great listener," Barbara recalled. "He had time for and a real interest in everyone he met."

But the fact that he was not mentioned in his book-length narrative, I found a story in a later paragraph. No better description of his nature could be found than in these words about him by the people who knew him best.