DuPen studied at the Chouinard Art School, and at the University of Southern California, both in Los Angeles; at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, and at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The award of several scholarships, most notably a Tiffany Fellowship in 1936, permitted him to travel widely in Europe. He subsequently served on the staff of the Tiffany Foundation. He began teaching at the School of Art of the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1945, and was appointed a full professor in 1959; he has served as chairman of the School's sculpture division.
He has executed many public and private commissions. Among the former are a number of works done for the University of Washington and for the cities of Seattle and Olympia, Washington, including a fountain for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Liturgical works have been commissioned from DuPen for churches in Tacoma, Seattle, and Longview, Washington, and on Mercer Island.
For his contribution to the Academy annual exhibition of 1954, DuPen was awarded the Saltus Gold Medal. In 1979 he received grants from the University of Washington and the Ford Foundation for the study of temple architecture in India, Thailand, and Egypt.
DuPen has been a member of the National Sculpture Society, the Seattle Arts Commission, the Allied Arts Commission, and the Northwest Institute of Sculpture, of which he has been president.
