Funeral Services Set for Newmar Co-Founder Mahlon Miller

Mahlon Miller

Newmar Corp. co-founder Mahlon MIller passed away this week, family and company officials confirmed.

Those wishing to pay their respects to the family of Miller, an industry icon, may do so during visitation services, planned for 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., Saturday (April 1) at Nappanee Missionary Church, 70417 SR 19 North, Nappanee, IN 46550. Funeral services are to take place at 3 p.m., Sunday (April 2) also at Nappanee Missionary Church. Memorial contributions may be made to the Nappanee Boys & Girls Club, 900 East Centennial Street, Nappanee, IN 46550 (574-773-5200).

Miller was preceded in death by his wife Irene (Helmuth) Miller, who passed in 2020.

Mahlon Miller is a 1998 inductee of the RV/MH Hall of Fame. The biography on his plaque reads: “Grew from 1960’s cabinet shop to President of Holiday Rambler Co., Purchased share of Newmar in 1984. Known as ‘Father of power slide-outs’, holds patents on pull down rock guard, power awning, and the automatic door stop among others.”

Mahlon’s involvement in founding Newmar is further detailed on the company’s website:

In 1968, Mahlon and Marvin Newcomer left their jobs at an established RV manufacturer to found Newmar Corporation in the small woodworking town of Nappanee, Ind. Their shared goal was to build and sell the best-quality recreational vehicles the world had ever seen, a mission that got underway with the 1971 Kountry Aire fifth-wheel travel trailer.

Newmar continued to grow throughout the 1970s, and in 1984 it was purchased by Miller, who gave up his position as president of Holiday Rambler Corp. to purchase a 51% ownership stake in Newmar.

During the 1980s, Newmar entered the Class A segment for the purpose of crafting premium-quality motorcoaches in small numbers. “When I first proposed the idea of building Class A motorcoaches, not everyone was on board,” Miller was quoted as saying. “But once each person within the company was able to see what kind of coach we were capable of building, we all knew it was a golden opportunity for us to set a new standard in the Class A segment.”

In 1990, the company introduced two iconic coaches that still exist today – Dutch Star and Mountain Aire.

Mahlon and Irene Miller

At the same time, Newmar began to pioneer features and technology that would change the industry, including the first power, flush-floor slideouts featured in a Class A motorhomes.

“I had several people say, ‘You can’t put a slideout in a motorhome. It’s impossible.’ So I hooked up one of our fifth-wheel trailers fit with a slideout and had a driver take myself and a pair of engineers over some of the roughest roads in Nappanee. Through it all, that slideout stayed as quiet as can be, to the point where one of the engineers proclaimed, ‘Well, maybe we can put a slideout in a motorhome!”’ he said back in the day.

For three years, in fact, Newmar was the only Class A manufacturer offering motorcoaches with slideouts. “Our competitors tried to sell against our slideouts for a while, but they eventually joined us in offering their own,” said Miller. “Being the first put us ahead, and in the RV industry, if you don’t stay on the front-edge, you don’t last.”

In 1991, Mahlon purchased the remaining 49% of Newmar Corporation. Just four years later, a new 116,000-square-foot manufacturing facility was erected in Nappanee, helping to further centralize the production process.

During the late 1990s, Newmar became the first manufacturer to offer full-body paint on both its towable and motorized RVs. To support this practice and ensure superior quality, a 45,000-square-foot paint facility was created. And in 2004, Newmar added one of the industry’s first air-conditioned production environments in the form of a 150,000-square-foot chassis prep and welding facility, in an effort to optimize the work environment for the company’s production employees.

In 2006, Miller’s son Matt was named president of Newmar Corporation, a position he would retire from in 2021.

Newmar Corp. executives taking to the road (l-r): Matthew Miller, Dick Parks, John Sammut and Mahlon Miller.

In October of 2010, with the nation and RV industry in the early stages of recovery following an economic downturn in 2008-09, Newmar’s senior management team – including Mahlon Miller, Matt Miller, Chairman & CEO Dick Parks as well as Vice President of Sales & Marketing John Sammut — with their spouses – set out on a 4,100-mile, cross-country tour that led to the doorsteps of 18 U.S. dealerships over a period of 15 days. The trip was intended to promote the company and the RV lifestyle and to provide an opportunity to visit with Newmar’s current and prospective dealer partners.

And in the fall of 2019, Winnebago Industries Inc. (NYSE: WGO) acquired Newmar for approximately $344 million.

Source: https://rvbusiness.com/funeral-services-set-for-newmar-co-founder-mahlon-miller/