Innovation and Heart: The Herman Miller Company
An 18 year-old clerk named DJ Depree was hired to work in a small office. Little did anyone know that this young man go on to become so much more.
In 1905, Star Furniture started as a small company in Zeeland, Michigan making wood furniture for homes. In West Michigan, lumber was plentiful and the area was a popular spot for furniture companies to settle in. They hired DJ Depree in 1909 to work in the office and 10 years later he was President of Star Furniture. Bu 1923 Depree had convinced his father-in-law, who was a successful businessman, to purchase the majority of shares in the company with him and they became the owners, renaming it, "Herman Miller," after that same father-in-law.
The Great Depression took over the nation in the late 1920's and into the 1930's. Herman Miller needed to offer products other then wood furniture so Depree hired a designer to create other products to meet the needs of changing lifestyles. Through this time, the Herman Miller Clock Company was started and new modern furniture was introduced at the famous World's Fair in Chicago in 1933. (Totally random, but if you want a great book full of history with some fiction tossed in you need to read, "Devil in the White City." It is an INCREDIBLE book about that World's Fair in Chicago and all that went into it. I read it and then we went to Chicago to stay in the Palmer Hotel to absorb the history around that area...but I digress...).
In 1937 the Herman Miller Clock Company was given to Miller's brother and re-named The Howard Miller Clock Company and is still around today. DJ Depree wanted to take his company into a new era with a new focus away from the traditional home furnishings. He recognized that design was the technology of the immediate future and businesses would need functional furniture, while home owners were looking for new, modern designs.
Through the next few years, the Herman Miller company would recruit Charles Eames, the first person to have a one-man furniture show at New York;s Museum of modern art. Pieces like bubble lamps, molded fiberglass chairs, glass topped coffee table, sleek benches, and wire storage baskets turn the Herman Miller name into a premier design and furniture corporation.
By 1966, Herman Miller furniture is sold all over the globe from South Africa to Scandinavia. This company that started out in the mind of a young clerk in Zeeland, Michigan has become one of the major manufacturers of home and office furniture in the world.
The company remained in the Depree family for many years. DJ stepped down as Chairman of the Board in 1966 and his son Hugh took over. After Hugh, his son Max DePree lead Herman Miller, publishing books on leadership and inspiring many. The company has always looked to the future. They are the only furniture company who is a member of the foundation the save the tropical rain forests. They push for healthcare, affirmative action, hiring and promotion of women in the company and was named one of the top 10 environmentally responsible companies in the country by Forbes magazine in 1994.
See the complete Herman Miller timeline here - https://www.hermanmiller.com/about/timeline/
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