Up from Rosebud

Mississippi-born Robert Ernest Milner had scarcely learned to read when he decided there must be more to life than following a mule along the rows of a piney woods cotton farm. At seven, young Milner--dubbed "Dumas" by his family because he tagged after a hired hand by that name--signed up to sell an elixir called Rosebud Salve to neighboring farmers. In the 35 years since, Dumas Milner has never stopped selling, and last week he did his biggest buying and selling yet. Breaking off the biggest single chunk of his $60 million Southern empire, Milner swapped his thriving household-products business (Perma Starch, Mystic Foam Cleaner, Pine-Sol) with American Cyanamid for $11 million in Cyanamid stock. At the same time, he sold off a parcel of Southern hotels and motels for $10 million in cash.

As a good wheeler-dealer always does, Milner knew what he was going to do with his profits before he got them. With the proceeds of the real estate deal, he bought 25% of National Car Rental System, a lagging third to Hertz and Avis, which last week went public after 15 years as a federation of independent dealers. Now, with Milner as chairman, National intends to convert most of its 477 stations across the U.S. into franchised operations. It also plans to open at least 100 new stations in a bid for a bigger share of the billion-dollar-a-year rent-a-car business.

$68 & $5,000. As National's Chairman, Milner is determined to leave day-to-day operations to others. Explains he: "If you own the company completely, you get involved at an operating level. You have to go to sales meetings, things like that. I'm tired of all that."

A friendly and unpretentious man, Dumas Milner might well consider himself tired. At 18 he borrowed $100 to attend a business school in Chillicothe, Mo., came home after 90 days $480 richer, thanks to a weekly raffle of men's suits that he conducted on the side. He then borrowed $3,500 more to buy a petroleum distributorship in Mississippi, gradually added a tank-truck fleet and a string of service stations. Drafted into the Air Force during World War II, Milner found that the Army did not require all of his talent. While making $68 a month as a sergeant, he made as much as $5,000 a month more as owner of a used-car lot beyond the barracks gates.

After the war Milner really got rolling. Going into surplus vehicle sales, he scoured Mississippi for veterans' priority certificates, was able to buy up equipment that could be sold at a tidy profit. Next, he set up as a car and truck importer, bought sight unseen a shipload of tractors for $833,000, which he did not have. Before the ship docked, Milner had sold the tractors for $998,000. Eventually, he acquired four Chevrolet agencies and one Pontiac dealership, and became one of G.M.'s biggest-volume dealers.

Family & Fishing. Now that the biggest of his companies is under Cyanamid's management, Milner plans to concentrate on such smaller enterprises as a resort island he expects to open up in the Bahamas in February. He will also devote more time to his wife and four children and to his favorite hobby--island-hopping fishing trips through the Gulf of Mexico. He also plans to keep a weather eye out for other companies to invest in. It is a sport he cannot resist.

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