Starting as a shipping clerk, he went on to become a travelling salesman, covering thousands of miles on the Santa Fe Railroad across America to sell Coty perfumes and gift sets.
[1] Coty, was a French perfume company created by wealthy François Coty, proprietor of Le Figaro, the French daily newspaper headquartered on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France and owner of numerous chateaux and villas in France and Corsica.
He was a founder of the Toilet Goods Association Inc., Washington, D.C., and served as its president in the 1960s, attending its annual meetings until 1987, a year before his death.
He joined the New York Athletic Club when it opened in 1924, was a director of the French Hospital in New York City, of Coty International, the French-American Chamber of Commerce, Compagnie de St. Gobain and Lilly Dache, Inc., a Chevalier of the Confrerie des Chevaliers de Tastevin, and resident of New York City, Pound Ridge, NY, Delray Beach, Florida and Meudon, France.
[2] Despres married milliner and fashion designer Lilly Daché in Palm Beach, Florida on March 13, 1786.