"[2] He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1947,[3] and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1951.
Jenrette worked for the New England Life Insurance Co. from 1951 to 1953, and served in the North Carolina National Guard from 1953 to 1955, after which he enrolled in the Harvard Business School where he earned an MBA in 1957.
[10] In addition to his career at DLJ and Equitable, Jenrette was a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers; a director of the Associates of the Harvard Business School; a trustee of The Duke Endowment; and chairman and founder of the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (renamed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation in 2024).
[2] Beginning in the 1960s, Jenrette bought and restored a series of notable historic houses, such as the Robert William Roper House in Charleston, South Carolina; Millford in Pinewood, South Carolina; Ayr Mount in Hillsborough, North Carolina; 152 East 38th Street in New York City; the George F. Baker House in New York City; and Edgewater in Barrytown, New York which he bought from author Gore Vidal in 1969.
[11][2][12] At Edgewater, Jenrette built two new buildings, a garden pavilion (1997) and a poolhouse (1998), both designed by the architect Michael Dwyer.