J. Irwin Miller

Joseph Irwin Miller (May 26, 1909 – August 19, 2004) was an American industrialist, patron of modern architecture, and lay leader in the Christian ecumenical movement and civil rights. He was instrumental in the rise of the Cummins Corporation and giving his hometown of Columbus, Indiana international stature with its buildings.

Miller was born in Columbus, Indiana to Hugh Thomas Miller, a college professor and politician, and Nettie Irwin Sweeney. He had one sister, Elizabeth Clementine Miller (1905–1996).

Miller was a 1931 graduate of Yale University and made Phi Beta Kappa. From 1931 to 1933 he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Balliol College, Oxford, which made him an Honorary Fellow in 1974.

On February 5, 1943, he married Xenia Simons.[1] They had three daughters, Margaret, Catherine, Elizabeth, and two sons Hugh and William. He had ten grandchildren, Jonathan, Zachary, Joshua, Benjamin, Aaron, Andrew, AnnaCatherine, Katherine, Laura, and Emily.

The Miller House which was designed by Eero Saarinen, was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2000. In 2010, after the death of Mrs. Miller, the house was donated to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The family's Canadian summer home on Lake Rosseau in Windermere, Ontario was also designed by Saarinen.

Miller joined Cummins, the family business, in 1934. He was executive vice president from 1944 to 1947, president from 1947 to 1951, and chairman from 1951 to 1977. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during the Second World War.

In 1950, Miller helped to establish the National Council of Churches (NCC) and later served as its first lay president (1960–63). Miller chaired the NCC's Commission on Religion and Race, which coordinated organized religion’s support for strong civil rights legislation, and jointly sponsored the March on Washington. He led religious delegations that met with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to push for the legislation that became the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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