Posted December 29, 2015

 

By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)

 

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – After receiving the Roger Milliken Defender of Manufacturing Award from the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance (SCMA) here this month, Smyth McKissick III took a few moments to reflect on his 40-year+ career in the textile industry.

 

McKissick, the fourth generation of his family to run Alice Manufacturing Co. in Easley, S.C., shared an anecdote about his first encounter with many of the leaders who built the industry in the state. In the early 1980s, he and his father, Ellison S. McKissick Jr., were walking to the opening reception of the South Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association’s Annual Meeting at The Cloister in Sea Island, Ga., he recalled.

 

“My father turned around and squared his shoulders to me and he said, ‘son, you are about to meet the finest you will ever meet in your life,’ ” McKissick said. “And, boy, was he right. At that meeting, some of the families represented were the Close’s, the Chapmans, the Cates, the Cornelsons, the Dents, the Hamricks, the Kents, the Montgomery’s, the Rice’s, the Selfs, the Stevens, the Vance’s and, of course, Mr. Milliken – and I’m sure there are some that I’ve left out.

 

“But what I’ve always been impressed by in our industry leaders are their selfless service for the industry,” he continued. “They’ve always been about serving for the greater good – not just driven to turn profits for their company but rather to improve the landscape of manufacturing. They were the best and you folks are the best.”

 

Joining McKissick as co-recipient of the Roger Milliken Defender of Manufacturing Award was Robert "Bobby" M. Hitt III, the S.C. Secretary of Commerce.

 

In addition, Richard Dillard, retired Milliken & Company executive, was honored with the inaugural SCMA Distinguished Service Award for his three decades of leadership within the organization.

 

Established in 2006, the Defender of Manufacturing Award recognizes individuals in the public and private sectors who have worked to advance the manufacturing industry in South Carolina. Recipients are chosen by the SCMA Executive Committee. In 2012, the SCMA board of directors voted to rename the award to honor Roger Milliken, who died in 2010. The Defender of Manufacturing Award is the most prestigious honor from the SCMA. (Click here to read Milliken’s biography.)

 

“Mr. Milliken lived ideas and principles by which he never wavered,” SCMA Chairman Roger Schrum, vice president of Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs at Sonoco Products Co., said in introducing the program. “He believed that America’s manufacturing leadership is the foundation of this nation’s economic achievements. Of course, most of you know he led Milliken & Co. for 71 years and during that time the company grew to become the world’s largest privately owned textile and chemical manufacturers. His personal examples of uncompromising integrity, hard work and an incredible passion for excellence are the reasons Mr. Milliken is perhaps the greatest defender of manufacturing in the state of South Carolina and I might say the entire nation.”

 

McKissick grew up in textiles

 

Since 1988 McKissick has served as president & CEO of Alice Manufacturing Co., which is widely recognized today as a modern and successful textile company as well as an important part of the South Carolina Upstate. He also serves as a trustee of Clemson University. He has previously served as chairman of the SCMA, chairman of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), co-chair of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) and as an independent director of Peoples Bancorp, Inc.

 

“I grew up in a textile family and I’m immensely proud of the predecessors in my family, especially my father,” McKissick said. “He had a great love for the U.S. textile industry and he fought tirelessly for the industry’s working men and women. He is the one who introduced me to this wonderful community of textile manufacturers.”

 

To read a transcript of McKissick’s remarks, click here.

 

Under Hitt, state has grown to new heights

 

Hitt was appointed by S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley to serve as Secretary of Commerce in January 2011. Hitt, the previous manager of corporate affairs at the BMW Manufacturing Company in Spartanburg, S.C., is a past two-time chairman of the SCMA. He served as the director of planning and development for the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough law firm in Columbia, S.C. In that role, Hitt was involved in bringing BMW to the Upstate, one of the state's largest success stories. 

 

Since becoming Secretary of Commerce, the agency has announced more than $17 billion in capital investment and 71,000 new jobs in the state, Schrum reported in introducing Hitt.

 

“I was very privileged to work at BMW for 18 years and learn and understand a lot about manufacturing, not only from my colleagues at BMW but also from some remarkable people here in the Upstate, including Roger Milliken,” Hitt said. “I’m not a real manufacturer like Smyth. Smyth knows how to make things – I know how to talk about making things. As a result of being exposed to that over the years, it has allowed me to understand what makes manufacturers tick and it has put me in a position to help forward our sales efforts here in South Carolina.”

 

Manufacturing is driving South Carolina, which leads the Southeast in manufacturing growth, Hitt added. Almost 18 percent of the state’s economic output comes from manufacturing, which accounts for 12 percent of the state’s jobs, he said.

 

“We’re making a difference,” he said. “We’re having an impact and we are leading the nation in foreign direct investment – the No. 1 state in foreign direct investment. We’ve never done that before. And it feels good. It is truly a great day in South Carolina.”

 

Dillard: Milliken built incredible legacy

 

Dillard, who recently retired from Milliken & Co. as director of Corporate Public Affairs, currently serves on the board of the Spartanburg Northside Development Initiative. He served three terms on the SCMA board and has previously served as chairman of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the United Way of the Piedmont, chairman of the Upstate Employers Network, vice chair of the S.C. Business & Industry Political Education Committee and chairman of the Spartanburg March of Dimes. In 2003, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford appointed him to a term on the South Carolina State Ports Authority.

 

“Anytime your name can be mentioned in the same paragraph as Smyth McKissick or Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt, it’s a great day for you in South Carolina,” Dillard said, later adding: “Taking that one step further, any time you can be recognized at an event that is in honor of Mr. Milliken, it’s a great day in your life.”

 

Dillard went on to reflect on the impact Mr. Milliken had on his community, his employees and manufacturing.

 

“As many of you know, the one word on Mr. Milliken’s headstone is ‘Builder,’ ” he said. “And that, he was. He built airports, he built arboretums and green spaces, he built educational institutions and he certainly built a world-class manufacturing and innovation company. I think most importantly, Mr. Milliken built relationships and coalitions. Up and down the socioeconomic ladder, he promoted and lived promoting the importance of manufacturing and what manufacturing meant to job creation and what it meant for wealth creation in our nation.”