Farewell to a Textile Icon

[War Monger]

This evening I heard on the news that textile icon Roger Milliken passed away. He was 95 years old. From 1981 - 1985 I had the pleasure of serving as a co-pilot on his Sikorsky S-76 helicopter and twin turboprop airplanes. Mr. Milliken also owned a lot of timber land in Maine, and I flew his helicopter with another pilot from South Carolina to Maine and spent a week with Mr. Milliken and his family in some cabins there. Every day we used the helicopter to survey the health of his timber from above.

Mr. Milliken was a tall man and in any group of executives he stood out. There was a presence about him. You could just tell he was in charge. I spent quite a bit of time around him, and I never heard him raise his voice or chew anyone out once. He was a very wealthy man, yet he was down to earth. I distinctly remember when Mr. Milliken drove an older Cadillac with a vinyl roof that was peeling severely from sun damage. A group of his executives bought him a brand new Cadillac for Christmas one year. I think they were embarrassed that the big boss was driving an old Cadillac with a peeling vinyl roof. I got the impression that Mr. Milliken didn't really care. He didn't need to impress anyone, and that old car provided comfortable, dependable transportation. He was a man who enjoyed what he did and he was good at it, and that had it's rewards but mostly he enriched the lives of those around him through his leadership.

I was young and so shy at the time, I didn't talk to him much, and I now realize what a treasure trove of information he would have been. I wish I had taken the opportunity to get to know him better.

Roger Milliken
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Roger Milliken (October 24, 1915 - December 30, 2010) was a U.S. textile heir whose grandfather, Seth, founded a small textile company, and who ended up acquiring financially strapped cotton mills as well as failed department stores which eventually merged into the Mercantile Department Store chain. Milliken attended Yale University.

He inherited the company in 1947. Today Milliken & Co. is the largest privately-held textile firm in the world.

The firm grew through product innovation and development as well as superior customer service. Milliken, who resided in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is known for the millions of dollars he donated to the Republican Party over many years as well as his fierce opposition to unionization. However, his unfailing commitment to manufacture products in America put him at odds with free trade Republicans and caused him to join with United States trade unions to protect US workers. He initiated the "Made with Pride in the USA" programs in the 1990s.

Milliken served as one of three industrial advisers to 1996 Presidential campaign of Patrick J. Buchanan. In 2000 election, when Buchanan ran as the Reform Party Presidential candidate, Milliken raised a significant proportion of the campaign's total funds. [1]

In the past ten years, Milliken donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservative politicians and political action committees including Sharp Pencil PAC [2], Bob Barr Leadership Fund, Peace Through Strength PAC [3], Fund for America's Future [4], and Freedom's Defense Fund.[5][6] [7] In the 2008 presidential campaign, Milliken backed California congressman Duncan Hunter. Hunter campaigned in opposition to illegal immigration and in support of economic protectionism, as Buchanan did before.

Mr. Milliken was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2004, Wofford College announced the creation of a faculty award named after Milliken, and in 2008, celebrated its first annual "Roger Milliken Day." Also in his honor, Upstate South Carolina's major airport (GSP) has been named "Roger Milliken Field."

In 1999, Milliken established the Noble Tree Foundation to encourage the planting of enduring and beautiful trees, particularly in rundown or overlooked corners of the Greenville-Spartanburg area and at traffic interchanges. In 2004, Milliken received the Frederick Law Olmsted Award, one of the highest honors bestowed by the National Arbor Day Foundation.

With his help, the entire Wofford College campus was declared a National Arboretum, later named for him. The science center at the Spartanburg college also sports his name.

He was the only chairman of the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport Commission from its inception in 1959 until his death, and he was instrumental in the founding of Spartanburg Day School in 1957.

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbAQFjwqOVYk]






The World's Billionaires
#1062 Roger Milliken


Age: 92

Fortune: self made

Source: textiles

Net Worth: $1.0 bil

Country Of Citizenship: United States

Residence: Spartanburg, South Carolina , United States, North America

Industry: Manufacturing

Marital Status: widowed, 5 children

Education: Yale University, Bachelor of Arts / Science

Grandfather built Milliken & Co. buying up struggling textile companies. Roger expanded into specialty fabrics, chemicals, carpets. Outspoken advocate for textile trade protections. Company coping with depressed industry through innovation: creating high-tech materials for aerospace, heavy industry.

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

I just sanitized this post. I am not going to tolerate any disrespect towards Roger Milliken whatsoever. Judson has been a partner with Milliken since 1980 and personal friends of Roger Milliken.

Mr. Milliken himself came to Judson in 1980 and asked us to design a vacuum system to eliminate the use of air hoses in textile facilities. He did not want to eliminate these air hoses for personal gain or profit. He wanted to eliminate these air hoses to make the work environment safer for his employees. At this time the air in textile manufacturing facilities was heavily laden with lint dust due to blowing.

We designed a positive displacement central vacuum system that was installed in all 40 Milliken textile facilities. This totally eliminated the lint dust problem. Roger Milliken was so concerned with his employees because breathing lint-contaminated air caused brown lung. He took the lead on safety for his employees and implemented this and many other safety features for the textile environment that were later used as standards for OSHA policy.

Roger Milliken was a down-to-earth guy that if you met in person, you would not think he was a billionaire. You could just sense the decency of the man when you were around him. He showed everyone respect and he was sincere about it.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Thanks Darryl for posting this, and even more thanks to Les for making it better.

A great ode to a great man's legacy.

Thanks,
Lee

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

Environmental Stewardship
The American worker and conservative politics were not the only arenas in which Mr. Milliken focused his leadership. Roger Milliken was also an environmental steward long before the term “green” was fashionable. Sustainability has long been a watchword at Milliken & Company and was acted on in tangible ways, as the company pursued exemplary recycling and emissions- and waste-reduction programs which led to its current carbon-negative status. The company diverts 99.98% of all the company's waste away from landfills and to places where it can be reused, recycled, or converted to energy. Milliken and Company has reduced its rate of water usage by over 50% since 1991.

Mr. Milliken loved the beauty of nature and worked with landscape architects and foresters to create beauty in and around Milliken plant locations, local schools and colleges, the Greenville-Spartanburg airport, and the community at large. Passionate about the connection between environment and humans, Mr. Milliken always paid keen attention to the effects of landscape and buildings on those who worked or walked within them. When creating the Milliken & Company headquarters in Spartanburg, he chose to buy more land than necessary in order to give it the space needed for fountains and vistas. He loved to walk the grounds, often making it a Sunday outing for his family, to stroll among the sweetgum trees and ponds and check on plantings and new possibilities.

In 1999, Mr. Milliken established the Noble Tree Foundation to encourage the planting of enduring and beautiful trees, particularly in rundown or overlooked corners of the Greenville-Spartanburg area and at traffic interchanges.

In 2004, Mr. Milliken received the Frederick Law Olmsted Award, one of the highest honors bestowed by the National Arbor Day Foundation. And in 2007, the American Society of Landscape Architects conferred Honorary Membership on Mr. Milliken. He was also awarded the Frances K. Hutchinson Medal by the Garden Club of America.

His environmental stewardship was just one of the reasons why the company was chosen as one of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” by Ethisphere magazine in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

Community
Mr. Milliken’s ties to South Carolina were long and deep. The legacy he leaves behind is well illustrated by the vision and initiative he displayed in helping to build the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, which then played a major role in attracting new business to the region, including BMW’s only manufacturing plant in North America and Michelin’s North American headquarters.

As the only chairman of the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport Commission since its inception in 1959 until his death, Mr. Milliken convinced government leaders in both cities that the region would be best served through the cooperative development of a single airport. As with all the building projects he undertook, he paid meticulous attention to its detail and landscaping, so that visitors from around the world would be greeted by welcoming views. In designing the airport, Mr. Milliken insisted on a landscape and fountain garden on the runway-side of the building -- the only one of its type in the Nation. Thus, for five decades, countless children have played in the garden while marveling at the huge planes landing and taking off. In 1992, he was named an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects, a true honor for one who did not have an architectural degree. In 2004, the airfield was named in his honor and is now known as Roger Milliken Field.

Mr. Milliken was also passionately dedicated to education, particularly in local schools. He was instrumental in the founding of the Spartanburg Day School in 1957, and served as a trustee and benefactor of the school until his death. He was also a long-time trustee of Wofford College in Spartanburg. Thanks in large part to Mr. Milliken’s vision and support, in 2002 the entire Wofford campus was designated a National Arboretum, which in 2008 was renamed the Roger Milliken Arboretum. Also in 2008, Wofford College named Mr. Milliken Trustee Emeritus and established Roger Milliken Day to be observed each year with a tree-planting ceremony.

Never afraid to tackle issues head on, whether popular or not, Mr. Milliken used his considerable personal influence to accomplish necessary change. Former president of Wofford College Joab Lesesne tells of one board meeting in 1964, when the board was debating whether to admit African-American students to the college. Mr. Milliken insisted that opening admissions was something the college had to do and that he would personally make up for any loss of alumni money that might result from the decision. His firmness in backing this new policy sprang from both pragmatism and his sense that it was simply the right thing to do. Wofford thus became one of the first historically white private colleges in the South to open its admissions fully and voluntarily to black applicants. Mr. Milliken also applied his vision to Wofford’s science center. Not only did he contribute funds towards its building, he spent hours upon hours involved with its design, reviewing fixtures and sightlines, insistent on getting it right. Designed to be the intellectual crossroads of the campus, it opened in 2001 and was named in his honor.

In everything he did, Roger Milliken was a man of drive and passion. His energy was legendary: he was known for outlasting even younger associates or children and grandchildren on marathon days of exploration. He downhill skied well into his 80s. At the family’s summer home in Northeast Harbor, Maine, he, for years, climbed mountains daily, raced sailboats twice a week, and participated in competitive card and board games, as well as games of croquet and ping-pong.

Nita, Mr. Milliken’s wife of 55 years, died in 2003. He is survived by five children and nine grandchildren.

Roger Milliken wanted his epitaph to read, simply, “Builder.” And so it will. And so he was, in countless ways.

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

Politics & Values
Mr. Milliken was well known for his support of Republican causes and candidates, particularly those who favored small government and the protection of American jobs.

After moving to Spartanburg in 1953, Mr. Milliken became an integral part of the rise of the Republican Party in the South. Long before the Republican Party gained a foothold in what was then a traditionally Democratic state, he worked on the grass-roots level to organize Republican precincts. From 1956 to 1984, he served as a delegate from South Carolina to eight Republican National Conventions. He successfully urged Barry Goldwater to run for President. Milliken was also a significant supporter of William F. Buckley, Jr., and his flagship magazine, National Review.

His support of Republican policy was not unequivocal, however. When Ross Perot ran for President opposing NAFTA, Mr. Milliken became a prominent supporter. He understood that there would be a huge cost to the offshoring of American manufacturing. Believing in the foundational value of a strong middle class, he made every attempt to shift U.S. policy away from free trade to fair trade. On this issue, he worked closely with Democrats.

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

The American Worker
Along with dedication to quality, Mr. Milliken understood the importance of safeguarding the lives of company workers. When a devastating fire burned to the ground the massive Live Oak carpet manufacturing plant in LaGrange, Georgia, in 1995, Mr. Milliken showed up the next day and committed to rebuild “starting tomorrow” and to have the plant up and operating again within six months, a promise that was kept. He also assured the plant’s 700 associates, none of whom were injured, that Milliken & Company would keep them employed in the meantime. When some of them transferred temporarily to Milliken plants abroad, he arranged for video teleconference calls for them to talk to their families.

Mr. Milliken was known for his outreach to Milliken workers, whom he insisted be called associates, not employees. It was common for him to walk up to an unknown associate, offer his hand and introduce himself simply, and engage in conversation. He was always eager to hear views from the factory floor and instituted an “Opportunity for Improvement” process, whereby management committed to review and quickly implement changes according to suggestions written in by associates. In this way Mr. Milliken harnessed the dedication, knowledge and creativity of those who had intimate, hands-on experience of the machinery and the daily familiarity with the manufacturing experience. In one instance, at the end of a meeting of some 400 Milliken & Company managers, Mr. Milliken stood on a chair, raised his right hand and asked those present to raise their hands and repeat after him: “I will listen; I will not shoot the messenger; I recognize that management is the problem.”

To help protect the American worker, in 1983 Mr. Milliken launched the nationally known “Crafted with Pride in the U.S.A.” advertising campaign, which aimed to control the flood of textile imports that were threatening the U.S. textile and apparel industry. In 2001, in his mid-80s, Mr. Milliken co-founded the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC). Based in Washington, DC, this organization is comprised of manufacturers who share a the common mission “to preserve and create American manufacturing jobs through the establishment of trade policy and other measures necessary for the U.S. manufacturing sector to stabilize and grow.”

In 2008 Business Week listed Milliken & Company as one of the “Best Places to Launch a Career” and in 2009 FORTUNE magazine named it, for the fifth time, one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”

 

[War Monger]

This was Mr. Milliken's first helicopter.

 

[War Monger]

Mr. Milliken had an employee who had served as a soldier in Vietnam. The gentleman years later while with Milliken was diagnosed with cancer. I was told that it was a result of Agent Orange. One of the other pilots and I flew the helicopter to pick up this Milliken employee from the parking lot of his doctor’s office. Somehow the word got out and there was a crowd watching us land. We flew him to Duke University for specialized medical care. It was my understanding that Mr. Milliken paid for the transportation and medical care this man received.

 

[War Monger]

http://www2.wspa.com/business/2010/...-former-ceo-milliken-company-dies-ar-1282567/

Follow this link to a really good video about Roger Milliken.

 

[Danny Strickland]

Undercover Boss should have done an episode on him.

Sounds like he was a great example of the saying "to those that are given much, much is required"