Roger Milliken
Encyclopedia
Roger Milliken was a U.S.
textile heir and businessman. He served as President and then CEO of his family's company, Milliken & Company, from 1947 until 2005. He continued to serve as Chairman of the Board until his death in 2010.
in 1865. The small woolens fabric company was initially based in Portland, Maine
, but moved to New York City in 1868 after William Deering
left Deering Milliken to start the Deering Harvester company (which is today known as Navistar International
). In 1884, Deering Milliken Company invested in its first property near Spartanburg, South Carolina
, where the company's headquarters have been based since 1958. In 1976, Deering Milliken officially became Milliken & Company
, where he studied French history and graduated in 1937. After graduation, Roger started out in New York City
’s Mercantile Stores, in which his family had an ownership stake. There he made the rounds of suppliers, seeing to it that coats and suits ordered by the stores were delivered. He, at times, pinned up the hems of women’s coats, all the while learning the business from the ground up.
In 1941, he was given the stewardship of three small woolen-producing mills in Maine. When his father, Gerrish, died in 1947, the 32-year-old Milliken succeeded him as president.
Roger Milliken met his future wife, Justine (Nita) Van Rensselaer Hooper, at a dinner party which he almost didn't attend. She was in the city working at the research department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They married in 1948.
In 1954, Mr. Milliken and his family moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina
and reside for the rest of his life. Both Mr. and Mrs. Milliken moved into active community service, he serving on the board of Wofford College and she on the board of Converse College. Mr. Milliken also served on other corporate and nonprofit boards, including: Arthur D. Little, Westinghouse, Citicorp, Mercantile, W.R. Grace; and Institute of Textile Technology, The Heritage Foundation, the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission, and the Spartanburg Day School.
Roger Milliken spearheaded forward-looking change in South Carolina, helping to create its thriving manufacturing and business environment. He was instrumental in attracting numerous businesses, including BMW and Southwest Airlines. He was president of Milliken & Company until 1983, when he became Chairman and CEO. He relinquished the CEO title in 2005, and remained Chairman until his death.
. Milliken & Company has also received the European Quality Award
and the Japanese TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) Excellence Award, making it the only company in the world to have won all three awards.
Mr. Milliken not only oversaw company policy and management, he was known, too, for extraordinary attention to detail in matters mechanical. A man of great curiosity, he would examine new technology thoroughly, sometimes crawling underneath a new loom to get a better understanding of the mechanisms at work.
It was Mr. Milliken’s dedication to quality in manufacturing that helped keep Milliken & Company competitive against lower-cost suppliers outside the U.S. It also helped to preserve thousands of American jobs that otherwise would have likely been lost.
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 composed 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.”
as unfair to U.S. workers even though parts of the company operated abroad.
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. According to Brian Doherty
of Reason magazine, Milliken "was one of the earliest and most fervent supporters" of libertarian
activist Robert LeFevre
, and "used to require high execs in his Deering-Milliken company to take LeFevre classes." He also served on the board of the Foundation for Economic Education
, "the first modern libertarian educational institution."
In addition to his devotion to libertarian
causes, Milliken was also active in the conservative movement. He donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservative politicians and political action committees including Sharp Pencil PAC, Bob Barr
Leadership Fund, Peace Through Strength
PAC, Fund for America's Future, and Freedom's Defense Fund.
Milliken supported Barry Goldwater
's presidential campaign
in 1964
and helped to persuade South Carolina
Senator Strom Thurmond
to leave the Democratic Party
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. He also served as one of three industrial advisers to 1996 Presidential campaign
of Patrick J. Buchanan. In the 2000 election
, when Buchanan ran as the Reform Party
Presidential candidate, Milliken raised a significant proportion of the campaign's total funds. Like Buchanan, Milliken was a vocal critic of free trade
, opposing NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO as well as most favored nation status and permanent normal trade relations with China
. 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 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, 2010 and 2011.
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.
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 did. And so he was, in countless ways.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
textile heir and businessman. He served as President and then CEO of his family's company, Milliken & Company, from 1947 until 2005. He continued to serve as Chairman of the Board until his death in 2010.
Company Background
Deering Milliken Company was co-founded by Roger's grandfather, Seth Milliken, and William DeeringWilliam Deering
William Deering was an American businessman and philanthropist.He inherited a woolen mill in Maine, but made his fortune in later life with the Deering Harvester Company.-Life:Deering was born April 25, 1826 in South Paris, Maine...
in 1865. The small woolens fabric company was initially based in Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
, but moved to New York City in 1868 after William Deering
William Deering
William Deering was an American businessman and philanthropist.He inherited a woolen mill in Maine, but made his fortune in later life with the Deering Harvester Company.-Life:Deering was born April 25, 1826 in South Paris, Maine...
left Deering Milliken to start the Deering Harvester company (which is today known as Navistar International
Navistar International
Navistar International Corporation is a United States-based holding company that owns the manufacturer of International brand commercial trucks, MaxxForce brand diesel engines, IC Bus school and commercial buses, Workhorse brand chassis for motor homes and step vans, and is a private label...
). In 1884, Deering Milliken Company invested in its first property near Spartanburg, South Carolina
Spartanburg, South Carolina
thgSpartanburg is the largest city in and the county seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest city of the three primary cities in the Upstate region of South Carolina, and is located northwest of Columbia, west of Charlotte, and about northeast of...
, where the company's headquarters have been based since 1958. In 1976, Deering Milliken officially became Milliken & Company
Personal History
Roger was born October 24, 1915, in New York City, the eldest son of Gerrish and Agnes (Gayley) Milliken. Roger's grandfather was Seth Milliken, co-founder of what is today known as Milliken & Company . Roger attended Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, where he studied French history and graduated in 1937. After graduation, Roger started out in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
’s Mercantile Stores, in which his family had an ownership stake. There he made the rounds of suppliers, seeing to it that coats and suits ordered by the stores were delivered. He, at times, pinned up the hems of women’s coats, all the while learning the business from the ground up.
In 1941, he was given the stewardship of three small woolen-producing mills in Maine. When his father, Gerrish, died in 1947, the 32-year-old Milliken succeeded him as president.
Roger Milliken met his future wife, Justine (Nita) Van Rensselaer Hooper, at a dinner party which he almost didn't attend. She was in the city working at the research department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They married in 1948.
In 1954, Mr. Milliken and his family moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina
Spartanburg, South Carolina
thgSpartanburg is the largest city in and the county seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest city of the three primary cities in the Upstate region of South Carolina, and is located northwest of Columbia, west of Charlotte, and about northeast of...
and reside for the rest of his life. Both Mr. and Mrs. Milliken moved into active community service, he serving on the board of Wofford College and she on the board of Converse College. Mr. Milliken also served on other corporate and nonprofit boards, including: Arthur D. Little, Westinghouse, Citicorp, Mercantile, W.R. Grace; and Institute of Textile Technology, The Heritage Foundation, the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission, and the Spartanburg Day School.
Roger Milliken spearheaded forward-looking change in South Carolina, helping to create its thriving manufacturing and business environment. He was instrumental in attracting numerous businesses, including BMW and Southwest Airlines. He was president of Milliken & Company until 1983, when he became Chairman and CEO. He relinquished the CEO title in 2005, and remained Chairman until his death.
Growing Milliken & Company
Of the various factors that helped Mr. Milliken grow the company, none was more important than his dedication to quality and process control. Early on, he recognized the value of Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s work in Japan. By following the tenets, “Good is the enemy of best, and best is the enemy of better,” and “The largest room in the world is the room for improvement,” Mr. Milliken took the company on a decades-long journey that elevated its quality standards to the point where the entire company was awarded, in 1989, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality AwardMalcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recognizes U.S. organizations in the business, health care, education, and nonprofit sectors for performance excellence. The Baldrige Award is the only formal recognition of the performance excellence of both public and private U.S. organizations given by...
. Milliken & Company has also received the European Quality Award
European Quality Award
The European Quality Award is now referred to as the EFQM Excellence Award.This distinction is awarded annually by the European Foundation for Quality Management to the organisation that is the best proponent in Europe of Total Quality Management....
and the Japanese TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) Excellence Award, making it the only company in the world to have won all three awards.
Mr. Milliken not only oversaw company policy and management, he was known, too, for extraordinary attention to detail in matters mechanical. A man of great curiosity, he would examine new technology thoroughly, sometimes crawling underneath a new loom to get a better understanding of the mechanisms at work.
It was Mr. Milliken’s dedication to quality in manufacturing that helped keep Milliken & Company competitive against lower-cost suppliers outside the U.S. It also helped to preserve thousands of American jobs that otherwise would have likely been lost.
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 composed 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
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
magazine named it, for the fifth time, one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”
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. Opposed to labor unions he thought the North American Free Trade AgreementNorth American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
as unfair to U.S. workers even though parts of the company operated abroad.
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. According to Brian Doherty
Brian Doherty (journalist)
Brian Doherty is an American journalist. He is a Senior Editor at Reason magazine. He is the author of This Is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground , Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement and Gun Control on Trial: Inside the...
of Reason magazine, Milliken "was one of the earliest and most fervent supporters" of libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
activist Robert LeFevre
Robert LeFevre
Robert LeFevre was an American libertarian businessman, radio personality, and primary theorist of autarchism.-Early life:...
, and "used to require high execs in his Deering-Milliken company to take LeFevre classes." He also served on the board of the Foundation for Economic Education
Foundation for Economic Education
The Foundation for Economic Education is one of the oldest free-market organizations established in the United States to study and advance the freedom philosophy. Murray Rothbard recognizes FEE for creating a "crucial open center" that he credits with launching the movement...
, "the first modern libertarian educational institution."
In addition to his devotion to libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
causes, Milliken was also active in the conservative movement. He donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservative politicians and political action committees including Sharp Pencil PAC, Bob Barr
Bob Barr
Robert Laurence "Bob" Barr, Jr. is a former federal prosecutorand a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Barr attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of...
Leadership Fund, Peace Through Strength
Peace through strength
"Peace through strength" is a conservative slogan supporting military strength for the purpose of creating peaceful international relations.For supporters of the MX missile in the 1970s, the missile symbolized "peace through strength." The phrase was popular in political rallies during 1988...
PAC, Fund for America's Future, and Freedom's Defense Fund.
Milliken supported Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
's presidential campaign
Barry Goldwater presidential campaign, 1964
The Barry Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964 began when United States Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona elected to seek the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States to challenge incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson...
in 1964
United States presidential election, 1964
The United States presidential election of 1964 was held on November 3, 1964. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had come to office less than a year earlier following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. Johnson, who had successfully associated himself with Kennedy's...
and helped to persuade South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
Senator Strom Thurmond
Strom Thurmond
James Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...
to leave the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
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. He also served as one of three industrial advisers to 1996 Presidential campaign
United States presidential election, 1996
The United States presidential election of 1996 was a contest between the Democratic national ticket of President Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee and the Republican national ticket of former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas for President and former Housing Secretary Jack...
of Patrick J. Buchanan. In the 2000 election
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
, when Buchanan ran as the Reform Party
Reform Party of the United States of America
The Reform Party of the United States of America is a political party in the United States, founded in 1995 by Ross Perot...
Presidential candidate, Milliken raised a significant proportion of the campaign's total funds. Like Buchanan, Milliken was a vocal critic of free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
, opposing NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO as well as most favored nation status and permanent normal trade relations with China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. In the 2008 presidential campaign
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, Milliken backed California congressman Duncan Hunter
Duncan Hunter
Duncan Lee Hunter is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the House of Representatives from California's 52nd, 45th and 42nd districts from 1981 to 2009....
. Hunter campaigned in opposition to illegal immigration
Illegal immigration to the United States
An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa....
and in support of economic protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
, as Buchanan did before.
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, 2010 and 2011.
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.
The Builder
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 did. And so he was, in countless ways.