Roger Milliken

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Roger Milliken (born October 24, 1915) is a U.S. textile heir, whose grandfather founded a small textile company, and as a "factor" ended up acquiring financially strapped cotton mills as well as failed department stores that eventually were merged into the Mercantile Department Store chain. Roger attended Yale University, where he was a member of Wolf's Head Society. He inherited the company in 1947. Today Milliken & Co. is the largest private textile firm in the world.

The firm grew through product innovation and development as well as superior customer service. Milliken, who resides in South Carolina, is known for the millions of dollars he has donated to the Republican Party over many years as well as his fierce opposition to unionization. However, his unfailing commitment to manufacture products in America has put him at odds with free trade Republicans and caused him to join with United States trade unions to protect US workers. He initiated the "Made with Pride in the USA" programs in the 1990s.

Milliken served as one of three industrial advisers to 1996 Presidential campaign of Patrick J. Buchanan. In 2000 election, when Buchanan ran as the Reform Party Presidential candidate, Milliken raised a significant proportion of the campaign's total funds. ^[1]

In the past ten years, Milliken has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservative politicians and political action committees including Sharp Pencil PAC ^[2], Bob Barr Leadership Fund, Peace Through Strength PAC ^[3], Fund for America's Future ^[4], and Freedom's Defense Fund.^[5]^[6] ^[7] In the 2008 presidential campaign, Milliken backed California congressman Duncan Hunter. Hunter campaigned in opposition to illegal immigration and in support of economic protectionism, as Buchanan did before. Mr. Milliken was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2000.