In his basement, David King unearths Cummins Inc. training manuals from years past. How-tos for different fuel systems, deep dives into the latest technologies and all-you-need-to-knows on product applications. He discovers old photos and collectibles, stumbling on a favorite: a silver coin gifted to him from Cummins’ 75th anniversary.
36-years’ worth of company memorabilia, saved during various milestones throughout David’s time working at Cummins now serves as a time capsule and celebration of progress. David’s legacy is much more than Cummins memorabilia, though. It’s a physical representation of his commitment to the company and to lifelong learning.
When David started engineering school, he wasn’t sure where life would take him. “I remember walking into the University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering and learning about how my garbage could become a fuel,” he recalls. “And now I’m a part of that.”
David admits to knowing very little about Cummins when he initially interviewed for various positions across organizations, despite his father working as a diesel technician in Louisville, Kentucky. Nevertheless, David was eager to learn and was offered a position on a team dedicated to truck testing. He stepped into his first Cummins-powered truck and never looked back.
“I rode around in trucks, drove the trucks and that’s what made me fall in love with the trucking industry,” he says.
Throughout his tenure, David has hopped around businesses and markets at the company, but trucking has always been his passion. As if his university lesson on renewable sources of fuel could have predicted his future, David now serves as the Product Manager for Cummins X15N natural gas engine for the North American market. It’s an engine that perhaps isn’t fueled by David’s garbage but certainly can run on renewable natural gas (RNG), a fuel sourced from various types of waste.
The X15N is one of the key engines in Cummins’ HELM (Higher efficiency. Lower emissions. Multiple fuels.) platform series, poised to help customers meet sustainability goals and business needs. The platforms feature a series of engines powered by fuel types like diesel, hydrogen and natural gas, allowing customers to choose the fuel type that best suits their needs. The X15N is the industry’s first big-bore engine that delivers the horsepower and performance that fleets need, all while reducing tailpipe emissions.
The X15N’s biggest cheerleader?
David.
David’s become nearly synonymous with the engine within the walls of Cummins Headquarters and in virtual meetings across North America, earning him the nickname among colleagues as “the natural gas King.” And while flattered, David deflects praise towards the team that makes it all possible.
“I feel good that people think about me that way,” David says, “but they need to also recognize that there are so many people [behind the X15N]. And I think everybody does that. You know, it takes a team to make all this happen, and so much work goes into that — so many great people working on it.”
Many of those innovators and teammates of David’s have continually changed his perspectives and fed his hunger to learn more. It’s teamwork that has powered him forward.
Everywhere you look in David’s life, it’s evident that he cares and engages deeply. Nothing is done perfunctorily, whether at work or at home. When David wasn’t promoting the latest engine technology, you could find him on Columbus, Indiana, soccer fields and at local flag football games coaching his kids' teams, lining the lacrosse fields (which David admits to revisiting all of his geometry skills to execute correctly) or timing swim meets. If not out coaching and watching his son and daughter’s sports, David was leading Destination Imagination sessions teaching youth problem-solving skills and improvisation.
Despite his greatest efforts to interest them in trucking and join the Cummins family — David met his wife at Cummins — he has only partially succeeded in the pursuit. David’s daughter, Claire, is pursuing her nursing degree, while his son, Mason, recently started his Cummins journey working as an environmental associate. Even today, David’s family remains his greatest passion.
“Whatever they’re into, I’m into,” he laughs. “My hobbies have been whatever my kids have been involved in.”
David’s son has been studying and researching bats and rainforests, a topic that David admits to spending hours reading about and researching because it’s what his son is interested in … and, of course, because he, too, finds it incredibly exciting and relevant to the work he does at Cummins through the company’s Destination Zero strategy.
Regardless of where you may find David King, you can almost guarantee two things. The first? David will be rep’ing the Cummins brand, proudly wearing one of his countless Cummins-branded shirts. And, of course, David will stop to converse, check in and catch up — almost certainly with the goal of learning something new.
A life of learning and dedication to Cummins has certainly solidified David’s legacy at Cummins.