An Architectural Mecca

Columbus, Indiana

    

    There is a new film that has received positive reviews. It is called Columbus and was filmed in Columbus, Indiana. The director is kogonada and about him I know nothing. I also confess to knowing nothing about Columbus, Indiana until a few years ago when I ran across an account of the gentleman who has much to do with the fact that Columbus is full of fine buildings designed by famous architects.

J. Irwin Miller

    That gentleman is J. Irwin Miller and a profile of him is offered below. As you will see, it was suggested in 1968 that he would be a good candidate for President of the United States. You can decide for yourself if you think he is a better candidate than the current Vice President of the United States, who also was born in Columbus.

    Once again, I am shamelessly recycling some older material during the summer doldrums. If you wish to avoid more of my prose you can go directly to this site to learn about the architecture of Columbus. To learn more about Mr. Miller, see this essay which came out after the profile below was published:

“Eero and Irwin: Praiseworthy Competition With One’s Ancestors,” by Will Miller in Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, eds. Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen and Donald Albrecht.

[This originally appeared in a newsletter called The Bottom Feeder, which was produced by me at Western University. I alone am responsible for the content. In this instance, as you will see, the purpose was to offer evidence that some good business people do exist. “Ivey” is the name of the business school at that university.]

Profile No. 1.

"Ivey's mission is to develop business leaders who think globally, act strategically and contribute to the societies within which they operate".

J. Irwin Miller (May 26, 1909 - August 16, 2004)

This is the first profile in what we anticipate will be a series dedicated to individuals in the business world who are exemplars of that portion of the Ivey mission statement that focuses on the social contributions made by business leaders.

It was completely by accident that some summer reading taken to a cottage in Muskoka happened to contain a biographical sketch of the American industrialist J. Irwin Miller whose family has long occupied an estate close by Windermere, Ontario. The admiring portrait is found in the American Scholar : "The Industrial-Strength Humanist: J. Irwin Miller Knew How to Get Things Built," by Robert Campbell (Vol.74, No.1, Winter, 2005,p.119). It quickly became clear that there is much about Miller to admire and the purpose here is to introduce to you a cultivated gentleman and patron of the arts who happened to run a large multinational while engaging in a variety of social causes. Before presenting information about Mr.Miller's contribution to society in general, we will provide some specific information about his business background and career.

Born in Columbus, Indiana into a family that was successful in banking and real estate, Miller is known in business circles for running for years the huge manufacturing company Cummins, Inc. which began as Cummins Engine Company. As a youngster Miller spent considerable time with the family chauffeur, Clessie Cummins, tinkering with diesel engines and the family invested heavily in Cummins for which Miller went to work in the early 1930s. He became President of Cummins in 1945 and Chairman in 1951 and remained actively involved with the company until 1977.

Although our concern here is with Miller's general contributions to society it is clear that his approach to the company and its employees was also an enlightened one. Cummins was successful in attracting talented and diverse workers and they continue to do well in that regard. It was reported recently in the Indianapolis Star that the company "has managed to buck the national average with a five-year hiring rate of 20 percent women" (which is high for a manufacturer). Cummins had worker-centered policies and Miller supported the foundation of a union in the 1930s. He wrote at one point that: "We understand the fact that we must give a machine the best care and the best treatment if we are to receive from it the best work. We have sometimes shied away from the similar fact that we must give a person the best care and the best treatment if we are to receive from him the best work". Upon his retirement from the Board, the Diesel Workers Union presented Miller with an honorary membership.

Miller attended Yale where he majored in Latin and Greek and he also did graduate work at Oxford. He was a generalist with strong interests in the arts and humanities and it was apparently at Yale that he became interested in architecture as a means for civic improvement. Those familiar with the Ivey School and the Ivey family will be aware of the positive impact a family can have on a city and such was the case with Miller and the Irwin family on Columbus, Indiana which is known as a "Mecca of Modern architecture" and the "Athens of the Prairie". Columbus, a small city south of Indianapolis, "boasts a collection of contemporary buildings unrivaled by that of any other American city except New York, Chicago and Los Angeles". There are over 70 significant buildings listed on the "Architectural Tour Map" that were designed by such famous architects such as: Eliel and Eero Saarinen, I.M.Pei, the firm Skidmore Owings and many more. " With its population of 39,000, Columbus likely has more buildings per capita designed by the winners of the profession's highest award - the Pritzker Architecture Prize - than any city on earth".

It has been noted that "Columbus, Indiana and J. Irwin Miller are almost holy words in architectural circles" and the reason is that Miller (the "Medici of the Midwest") established the Cummins Foundation in the 1950s which agreed to pay the architectural fees if famous and respected architects were chosen to build the schools, churches and buildings in the city. It was felt that it would be easier to attract workers to a more attractive city and that beautiful structures would make Columbus a more appealing place in which to live. All of this seems familiar given the recent emphasis on the "creative city" concept that has been widely discussed in the last couple of years.

After his recent death it was noted in one obituary that "When he died last August aged 95, thousands of Cummins workers downed tools to pay tribute to a man who not only built an empire, but also used his riches to promote human rights". Apart from his involvement with the architectural reconstruction of Columbus he was also active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and helped organize the 1963 march on Washington. He was such a highly regarded and well respected business leader that you will find his picture occupying the entire cover of the October, 1968 issue of Esquire under the caption "This Man Ought to be the Next President of the United States". The author of the accompanying article, Steven Roberts, was given the assignment of finding a better choice for President during that tumultuous year and he found one in J. Irwin Miller. Miller had served on many government committees for both parties and believed firmly in government service and the need to address social ills. He wrote: "There are two ways in which you could avoid influenza. You could go all over the room with a microscope and a squirt gun and try to kill every influenza bug in the room, or you could make yourself sufficiently healthy that you could throw off the germ. The second way is more practical. That way is to make society so healthy that its operations are self convincing, that it really is the kind of place it pretends to be. You make this country resemble what we say it is on the Fourth of July speeches and I think many of our present problems would begin to diminish. We have to keep our promises". While he was interested in politics he had the intelligence to recognize that he would not be a good politician. Senator Lugar noted that Miller was " a reverent man whose extraordinary talents were clothed in remarkable humility" and that seems like a fitting epitaph. Another suitable one is provided by another senator (Birch Bayh): "His heart and soul was dedicated to making life generally better for a whole lot of folks".

Additional comments and suggested resources:

To learn more about J. Irwin Miller see the sources noted below. He died not long after returning from a brief trip to Canada. The Canadian connections of the Miller and Irwin families go back to 1908 when Miller's grandfather bought Llanllar Point in Muskoka. Miller's generosity and philanthropy extended to Canada and particularly to the little community of Windermere. It was noted upon his death that "Pretty much any endeavour that needed support received it from the Miller family..." (Jake Good, "Irwin Miller Left a Profound Mark on Windermere," The Muskokan, September 2, 2004). There is also an architectural legacy. See "Ontario's Saarinen: Never Published Before, This Summer Home by Architect Eero Saarinen is a Provocative Experiment in Style..." by Peter C Papademetriou, City and Country Home Vol.8, No.5, June, 1989.

Information about Cummins, the company, is easy to locate. Although Miller thought that local roots were important -- he remained in Columbus where he felt it most worthwhile to be in "praiseworthy competition with one's ancestors" - Cummins is now a global competitor with successful operations in India and China and elsewhere. In fact there is a recent Ivey case with the title "Taming the Dragon: Cummins in China".

There is also considerable information about the related family enterprise - Irwin Financial - and they have recently expanded operations into Canada.

Bibliography:

anon. "Cummins Mourns the Loss of Visionary Leader: Former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer J. Irwin Miller's Legacy Touched Thousands," Business Wire, August 17, 2004; anon. "J. Irwin Miller, 95 of Indiana, Patron of Prized Architecture," Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2004; anon. "Death of a Pioneer," Daily Telegraph, September 4, 2004; anon. "Ex-Cummins CEO Dead at 95," Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, August 18, 2004; anon. "Architectural Benefactor J. Irwin Miller Dies," The Washington Post, August 18, 2004; Campbell, Robert. "Columbus, Ind. -- Architectural Mecca," The Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2004; Bussel, Abby. "Architecture Patron J. Irwin Miller, 1909-2004: Transformed Indiana Town," Architecture, Vol. 93, No.10, Oct.1, 2004; Forgey Benjamin. "The Champion of Urbane Renewal," The Washington Post, August 21, 2004; Knight, Dana. "Engineering a Future," Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, Feb. 19, 2006, p.1; Pace, Eric. "J. Irwin Miller Industrialist and Patron of Modern Architecture," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 23, 2004, (reprinted from The New York Times, August 19, 2004; Roberts, Steven V. "Is it Too Late for A Man of Honesty, High Purpose and Intelligence to be Elected President of the United States?" Esquire, Vol.LXVIII, No.4, October 1981 p.89;Schneider, Rob. "Columbus, Indiana Hails Benefactor Who Built Up Successful Engine Company," The Indianapolis Star, August 22, 2004; Tristam, Pierre, "Americans of a Higher Purpose: J.Irwin Miller, Gloria Emerson," Daytona Beach News Journal, September 21, 2004; Webber, Tammy. "Indiana Engine Magnate Dies at 95," The Indianapolis Star, August 17, 2004; Whiteley, Patrick. "Stroke of Genius That Created a Diesel Giant," Daily Telegraph, Oct.11, 2004.

Selected web sites:

For an interesting lecture by Mr. Miller see his address to the Indiana Humanities Council in 1997. The complete text of the talk is presented here.

Details about Cummins are found at this site:https://www.cummins.com/ In 2005 the magazine Business Ethics chose Cummins as its top U.S. corporate citizen.

To learn more about the Cummins Foundation see here. At this site you can also read their "Corporate Social Responsibility" report.

Information about Irwin Financial is here:

To learn more about the architecture of Columbus see here .

This profile was written in 2006. In 2008 we stumbled across a very useful essay about  Miller. Here are the details: "J.Irwin Miller", in Business People in the News, Vol.1, 1976, p.266-269.  It is a well-written account and it indicates clearly that Miller was a good choice for our first example of a business person who has admirable qualities.

[This essay appeared in 2006 and is no longer available on the library website.]

P.S.

For reviews of the film see:

"Film featuring Indiana city's architecture wins top prize,” Associated Press, June 28, 2017;

“Highlights from the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Richard Brody, The New Yorker, Jan. 25, 2017

“Columbus’s merits are visual and dramatic: kogonada proves a highly skilled director of actors (stars John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson both deliver superlative performances, rich in nuance and feeling) and a stylist with an exceptional eye (his laser-precise compositions, framed around the modernist architecture for which Columbia, Indiana, is renowned, are positively stunning).” By Calum Marsh, June 14, 2017.

“Video essayist kogonada’s debut feature is a mesmerizing drama about, believe it or not, relationships and architecture. Bringing the eye he does to his essays, several of which you’ll find as Criterion Blu-ray extras, kogonada and cinematographer Elisha Christian (who, interestingly when it comes to composition, has a lot of credits from the world of video games) use the architecture of Columbus, Indiana as their canvas. They set up almost-always-static shots of some of the city’s most striking buildings and then allow the human drama to play out in front of it. It is a film with precise lines that captures very imprecise human emotions.” Brian Tallerico, Jan. 25, 2017 from rogerebert.com.