William McKnight is a legend at 3M. That’s him in the photo, making sure the cornerstone of our first administration building was level.

He gave us a lot of the philosophies that guide us today. One of my favorites: “Hire good people and leave them alone.” Mr. McKnight was chairman in 1953, when 3M became one of the first companies to establish a charitable organization, now known as 3Mgives.

All of this came together for me recently when I got to speak to my local Rotary Club. I’ve been a Rotary member for a decade because I believe in Rotary International’s motto of “Service Above Self.”

The experience meant a lot to me, because I was able to talk about both 3M’s community support ($1.4 billion in cash and product donations, plus hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours) and its support of our team’s development and leadership.

I like to think that William McKnight would have approved.