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Byline: DAVID ISAAC
Many decades ago, Irwin Miller took a small family business and built it into a multibillion dollar company with 24,000 employees.
That company, Cummins Inc., doesn't bear Miller's name. It's named after the Miller family's chauffeur, Clessie Cummins, who founded Cummins Engine Co. in 1919 and in whose workshop Irwin Miller spent many hours.
Miller, who died Aug. 16 at 95, brought a special talent to the business, says analyst Charlie Rentschler of Langenberg & Co.
"He had the vision to see that trucks were going to haul the freight in this country -- not trains -- and that those trucks would be diesel trucks, not gasoline," Rentschler said.
Turned out to be a pretty accurate vision. Today, Cummins is the nation's largest independent producer of diesel engines.
Company spokeswoman Karen Battin says Cummins offers the broadest range of products in the diesel engine business, from one-liter engines to 91-liter engines.