Luther Blount

Luther H. Blount (September 5, 1916 – September 24, 2006) was an American entrepreneur, inventor, and philanthropist. Blount was a shipbuilder and holds 22 patents, most of which are relating to his trade.

Biography Luther Blount was born on September 5, 1916, in Warren, Rhode Island, to Willis Eugene Blount and Ruth Gibbs Blount. Luther had one brother F. Nelson Blount, the industrialist and steam locomotive collector.

After graduating from Barrington High School, Blount attended Wentworth Institute of Technology, where he obtained an associate degree (at the time, the highest degree offered at Wentworth) in 1937. He got his entrepreneurial start by carving duck jewelry pins that he sold out of his "Dippy Duck Widdle Shop". During those years Blount continued to design jewellery, worked for his grandfather's oyster company, and was also a mill machinist and plant engineer. He honed his inventing talent while creating a steaming process to open clams under the employment of his brother's seafood company.

From the 1970s to the early 2000s Blount offered cruising tours of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island under the name "Bay Queen Cruises". The ships involved with this venture were named Bay Queen (1977) and Vista Jubilee (1989).

By the 1990s, Blount Marine, now known as Blount Boats, was one of the few independently owned shipyards in the United States building commercial passenger vessels.

In 1960, Blount was admitted as a compatriot of the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Philanthropy Blount donated millions in time and money to various causes throughout his life. This included giving the University of Rhode Island $300,000 to help build an aquaculture research lab in 2001.

External sources and references

List of vessels built by Blount Marine

Patents

Esters of alpha-hydroxy acids and their estolides. , Ship. , Controllable-pitch propeller. , Controllable-pitch propeller with trailing edge. , Controllable-pitch propeller. , Fairing for controllable-pitch propeller. , Safety release for trawl wires. , Power assist for vessel steering mechanism. , Blount method of handling trawl gears. , Blount break control. , Lift dock for a water borne vessel. , Passenger vessel. , Method and means for growing oysters. , Marine power pod. , Hull construction. , Foams of silicates and poly(meth)acrylic acids. , Prosthesis. , Top sides and superstructure portion of a boat. , Water saving toilet. , Top sides and superstructure of a boat. , Boat hull construction and method of making the same.