J. Irwin Miller

A concert at Yale was cause enough for a friend to write about the late J. Irwin Miller, first lay president of the National Council of Churches. Miller was the CEO of Cummins Engine Co. in Columbus, Ohio, but he was much, more than a gifted businessman--in the 1960s, he led mainline Protestant churches in the campaign for racial justice. Among his finest hours: He took the CEO of AT&T with him to meet with John F. Kennedy days after Birmingham's police used fire hoses and police dogs against African-American students.Later, he brokered the peaceful abolition of segregation practices in 68 percent of Southern and Border-State cities and towns. Said Attorney General Robert Kennedy: "Six more like him, and we'd be a great nation."

I remember, during Vietnam, a group called Business Executives for Peace. And as I thought about Miller, I wondered: Why are no CEOs speaking out now? Where are the new J. Irwin Millers?