1. Roger Milliken was an American textile heir, industrialist, businessman, and political activist.
18 Facts About Roger Milliken
1. 2.
Roger Milliken continued as chairman until his death in 2010.
3.
The small woolens fabric company was initially based in Portland, Maine, but moved to New York City in 1868 after William Deering left Deering Roger Milliken to start the Deering Harvester company.
4.
In 1884, Deering Roger Milliken Company invested in its first property near Spartanburg, South Carolina, where the company's headquarters have been based since 1958.
5.
Roger Milliken attended Yale University, where he studied French history and graduated in 1937.
6.
Roger's brother Gerrish H Milliken was married to Phoebe Thayer Milliken nee Goodhue, the daughter of the banker F Abott Goodhue.
7.
When his father, Gerrish, died in 1947, the 32-year-old Roger Milliken succeeded him as president.
8.
Young Roger Milliken soon became embroiled in one of the ugliest labor disputes in American history.
9.
In 1956 Roger Milliken imposed changes in working conditions at the Darlington SC textile mill that were unfavorable to the workers.
10.
Roger Milliken responded by firing all the workers in violation of federal labor law and closing the mill.
11.
Roger Milliken met his future wife, Justine van Rensselaer Hooper, at a dinner party.
12.
Roger Milliken's son Weston is an openly gay man, liberal activist, and member of the Democracy Alliance that is dedicated to advancing the rights of organized labor, people of color, women, and LGBT people in Southern states.
13.
The Milliken family was active in the community, Roger serving on the board of Wofford College and Justine on the board of Converse College.
14.
Roger Milliken was vehemently Anti-Union, closing the Darlington Manufacturing Company after workers there voted to unionize in 1956.
15.
Roger Milliken relinquished the CEO title in 2005, and remained chairman until his death.
16.
Roger Milliken helped convince South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond to switch to the Republican Party.
17.
Roger Milliken raised the money for the "Senator Thurmond Speaks for Nixon-Agnew" commercials that formed part of Nixon's Southern Strategy of attracting white Southerners to the Republican Party in the 1968 Presidential election.
18.
Roger Milliken supported National Review, the Western Goals Foundation, the John Birch Society, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Pat Buchanan, among others.