Deborah Berke
Alternately inspiring and elegiac, Nancy Kriplen's engaging biography of J. Irwin Miller captures his remarkable life and legacy as an industrialist, philanthropist, patron of the arts, university trustee, faith leader, and master builder. The engineering and manufacturing company he ran and the town he shaped are the two most visible pieces of his legacy, but they represent only a fraction of his contribution to 20th century America.
Clay Risen
J. Irwin Miller was more than a titan of American industry — he provided the business world with a vision for how to be about more than the bottom line, how to improve not just profits, but their communities. Nancy Kriplen has written the biography that Miller deserves, a richly detailed account of his life and times.
Paul Goldberger
J. Irwin Miller was an accomplished businessman, a committed religious leader, an impassioned arts advocate, a talented amateur musician and a respected civic leader, not to mention one of the greatest patrons of architecture of modern times. But what really made him one of the noblest Americans of our age was that he accomplished all that he did with consistent modesty, decency, fairness and respect, qualities that are in short supply in public life today. Nancy Kripen has now told the story of his life, and for me this book not only led me to admire Miller all the more, but also to hope that reading about his life might help us to restore the tolerance and reason that he believed were vital to civilized community.
