Columbus, Ind. — J. Irwin Miller, a businessman and philanthropist who was one of the founding fathers of the National Council of Churches (NCC), died Aug. 16 at his home in Columbus, Ind. He was 95.
Miller participated in the NCC’s organizing assembly in 1950 and later served as its first lay president from 1960 to 1963. Under his leadership, the NCC launched its Commission on Religion and Race, which took an active role in the civil rights movement and co-sponsored the 1963 March on Washington.
Miller led the Cummins Engine Co. for more than 40 years, which grew to a Fortune 500 company under his leadership with 25,000 employees in 131 countries. He shut down the Cummins factory in South Africa to protest the country’s apartheid policies.
Martin Luther King Jr. was so moved by Miller’s corporate ethics that he called him “the most socially responsible businessman in the country,” according to James Joseph, a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and a Cummins vice president.
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