Dimitrios Negrepontis

Dimitrios Negrepontis was descended from an expatriate Greek family and grew up in Lausanne, Switzerland, and attended boarding school in Klosters, Switzerland, where he learned to ski. Negrepontis used his family money to become a Greek shipping magnate, and in 1939 would marry Catherine Coumantaros, described as one of the most beautiful women in Greece. She had been born in New York, although her family returned to Greece when she was three.

His shipping business would bring him to New York where they lived in Manhattan. He was a polyglot who spoke English, French, German, and Greek fluently. Negrepontis and his wife had four boys, all of whom achieved distinction in their lives. The best known is John Negreponte, an American diplomat, who served as US Ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, Iraq, and the Philippines, and under President George W. Bush, was the US Ambassador to the United Nations from 2001-04.

Under President Reagan he had been Deputy National Security Advisor, and under Bush 43 he would later serve as Director of National Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State. Another child was Nicholas Negreponte, who was an architect and computer scientist who started Wired magazine and was involved in the One Laptop Per Child project. Another brother, Michel, was an Emmy Award winning filmmaker, while George Negreponte was an artist and President of the Drawing Center from 2002-07.