Background and Personal History
of
Dan Chiles
Home: 1972 S. Oak Grove
Springfield, Mo. 65804
417-886-5610
Work: Emerald Ops
Springfield, MO
e-mail: chiles4council@mac.com
Dan’s job
Dan is Vice President of Emerald Ops, a management company with investments in operating divisions that concern themselves with agriculture, property and business development.
Miscellaneous
Dan and his brother Mike Chiles have been in business together since 1975 as building contractors, manufacturers and distributors in several businesses.
Dan began in Boston and rode his bicycle across the United States with his two brothers and friends in the centennial year of 1976. They celebrated their Independence in Miles City, Montana on their way to Vancouver, British Columbia. They worked construction and in orchards to earn passage home.
In 1978, Dan, along with Brother Mike and friends rode their bicycles from Springfield to within 50 miles of the Arctic Circle in Circle, Alaska. That trip included a 650 mile voyage down the Yukon River on a homemade raft. Dan and Mike worked construction to earn passage home. See What I learned...
Dan has ten United States and several foreign Patents for inventions having to do with radiant technology, a toy, a tool, a fastener and an electronic device. Dan and his brother, Mike, have invented, patented, developed and sold over 200 million dollars of new products in their career.
He is the former Vice President of Marketing, Watts Radiant. Watts is a manufacturing and marketing company that last year supplied radiant heating components to over 70,000 radiant heating projects in North America.
Dan is a former member of the Springfield Board of Public Utilities. He is also a former member of the Springfield City Council where he served as Mayor Pro Tem and chairman of the Finance and Administration Committee.
Dan served on the boards of the Ozarks Food Policy Council, the Springfield-Greene County Regional Health Commission, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Solid Waste District O, the Springfield Horizon Scanning Committee, the Missouri Municipal League Resolutions Committee and the Springfield area Sustainable Transportation Advocacy Resource Team.
Education
June, 1975: Graduated with honors from the undergraduate College at Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in General Studies and a concentration in Government.
Graduate of Glendale High School, Pershing Jr. High, and Eugene Fields Elementary School.
Personal
Dan was born at St. Johns Hospital in Springfield in 1953. He is married to Margy (Vogler) Chiles for 26 years, who graduated from MSU with honors and a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics. They have four children: Philip, Thomas, David and Amelia. He is a former alterboy at Redeemer Lutheran Church.
The Chiles family has lived in the New World for 373 years since Walter Chiles left Bristol, England for James Town, Virginia in 1638. Walter lived in the first brick house in America and served as Speaker of the Assembly in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1652.
Dan's parents are Dick and Ellen Chiles. Dick owned and operated Chiles Tractor and Machinery Company for 40 years in Springfield following his service as a U.S. Navy carrier-based fighter pilot in World War II.
Brother Jim is a successful writer of several wonderful books: "Inviting Disaster" and “The God Machine”. He writes for magazines including Smithsonian, Audubon, Harvard Magazine, Air & Space, American Heritage and Texas Monthly. He is also a commentator for the History Channel and National Geographic Channel.
Brother Mike is the President of Emerald Ops. He is a founding member and twice President of the Board of the Radiant Panel Association.
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On the production line for SunTouch®, a product developed around two U.S. Patents granted to Mike and Dan Chiles.
Photo by Mark McNay
The Rush hardwood timber-frame Covered Bridge in Lebanon, Mo. by Mike & Dan Chiles.
Mike & Dan working on a hardwood log cabin, 1977.
