The Milliken Legacy

By Cindy Landrum  

JANUARY 6, 2011 11:44 a.m. (0)

Milliken, who died last week at the age of 95, transformed his family’s textile business into one of the largest textile and chemical companies in the world and one that produced products to make firefighter’s gear flame retardant and Jell-O pudding smooth.

He helped build Spartanburg Day School, helped get the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport built and helped make South Carolina green with the formation of the Noble Tree Foundation and his love of the environment.

He helped build the Republican Party into a powerhouse in South Carolina, providing the financial and intellectual muscle for the party in its infancy against a Democratic party that dominated state politics since Reconstruction.

“My father was a builder,” said his daughter Jan Russell, one of Milliken’s five children. “His favorite building blocks were not bricks and mortar, but ideas, people and, yes, trees.”

Milliken died last week and was laid to rest in a private ceremony on Sunday. Hundreds of people, from business leaders to former U.S. ambassadors and South Carolina governors to textile workers, attended a public memorial at the Episcopal Church of the Advent on Monday.

Milliken’s will had not been filed with the Spartanburg County Probate Court as of Tuesday. State law requires the will to be filed within 30 days of Milliken’s death.

While the contents of the will have not been made public, one thing is certain – the company will remain privately-held, said Richard Dillard, company spokesman.

The company’s private nature is one reason some say it was able to thrive while other American textile plants withered. While other companies had to answer to Wall Street, Milliken was able to pour money into research and development. The company holds more than 2,300 U.S. patents, employs 7,000 people and operates 50 manufacturing facilities in seven countries. The company’s Spartanburg research and development facility is one of the world’s largest textile and chemical research facilities.

“Mr. Milliken left our company well-positioned for future growth under the capable leadership of our president and CEO Joe Salley,” Dillard said. Milliken stepped aside from daily management of the company in 2006 but remained chairman of the board. Salley was named president and CEO in 2008.

A board of directors will answer to a group of shareholders, primarily Milliken family members and a few very close friends of the family, Dillard said.

Milliken was known as an innovator, investing heavily in research and development that allowed his company to flourish when other big names in textiles went out of business.

“Mr. Milliken was a business leader, whose contribution to our state’s economic engine touched more South Carolinians’ lives during his time of this earth than any other has, and perhaps any other will,” said Karen Floyd, chairwoman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

But, she said, Milliken did not let his stature as one of the leading businessmen in South Carolina and a perennial spot-holder on the Forbes’ Magazine’s World’s Richest People list, stop him from relating to the workers in his plants.

“It is difficult to imagine someone who on one hand was literally larger than life, while on the other being one of the kindest, most compassionate and gentle people I have ever had the fortune of knowing,” she said.

A memory board on the Milliken & Company tribute site showed Milliken could relate to everybody, no matter what their job, status or economic standing.

Anthony Grigg did pest control at Milliken’s home and the Interstate 585 plant and said Milliken would always greet him with respect and a handshake.

“I will always remember him and the generosity that he showed me,” wrote Grigg, of Landrum.

Many of the tributes came from company employees, recalling their personal encounters with Milliken.

David Grier of Greenville recalled trying to get Milliken to buy some knitting machines.

In the fifth and final meeting, Milliken started writing on the chalkboard and used his jacket sleeve as an eraser.

“You just can’t fake passion like that,” Grier wrote. “He was making his point in the most down-to-earth way without any pretension. Just a small thing but what created so much respect.”

Former Gov. David Beasley called Milliken a “great South Carolinian and American.”

“God threw away the mold when he made Roger Milliken,” he wrote.

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