Clessie Cummins

Clessie Lyle Cummins was the founder of the Cummins Engine Company, an entrepreneur who spent his career improving existing diesel engines and creating new diesel engine designs of his own. He was awarded 33 United States patents for his inventions and set five separate world records for endurance and speed driving diesel powered trucks, buses and race cars, demonstrations he used to prove that diesel power could compete with gasoline engines on reliability and cost rather than remaining a stationary industrial technology. His engine company, built from a small machine shop backing, grew into one of the most significant independent diesel engine manufacturers supplying the American truck and bus industry through the twentieth century. Cummins was born on December 27, 1888 and died on August 17, 1968. His record runs and patents helped move diesel propulsion out of ships and stationary plants and into the road going commercial vehicles that still carry his company's name.