He was the son of Charles Stewart Mott (a co-founder of General Motors) and appeared on Nixon's Enemies List for his support of liberal causes.
[2] Mott attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for three years and finished his education at the Columbia University School of General Studies, earning two bachelor's degrees, one in business administration and one in comparative literature.
In the 1970s, Mott contracted for the purchase of a multimillion‐dollar quadruplex penthouse in New York City that he had designed to meet his specific needs—"allowing him to greet the sun on rising from his bed in the East Solarium and to watch it sink from a desk that faces west, all amid 10,000 square feet reserved for planting".
[citation needed] Shortly prior to his death Mott resided in Bermuda for most of his time, and also traveled to his numerous houses in the United States.
His homes included a penthouse in 800 Park Avenue in Manhattan,[5] a house trailer on a Florida farm, and a Chinese junk moored on the Hudson River in New York City.