When USGlass magazine announced that Harry Miles would be a 1999 Inductee
into the Glass and Metal Hall of Fame™, the wires lit up and mail started coming. The
magazine received a number of testaments to his good work, negotiation skills and
willingness to help others learn about the glass industry.
Miles, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame on October 22, elicits admiration from
colleagues and friends. In his career, Miles was devoted to the mechanics and engineering
of glass and still revels at its properties as a material.
The son of a newspaperman, Miles was born in San Diego. His father’s job kept the
family on the move until Miles enrolled in college. In 1946, he chose to attend the
University of Illinois. “It was one of the few good engineering schools still
accepting students from out of state,” he says. Miles met his wife Jan there while
working on the school newspaper. He graduated with a major in general engineering and
entered the Navy where he served at a variety of places during the next three years.
When he got out of the Navy in 1954, he went looking for a job and found one at what was
then the Blue Ridge Glass Corporation (BRGC). BRGC was a small company jointly owned by
San Gobain and Corning, which eventually evolved into the AFG Industries of today.
Miles started as an engineering foreman and worked in a variety of jobs. “The company
kept giving me areas to fix or the problems to solve, so I did,” he says, “and I
have the scars to prove it!” Eventually he settled in the technical services area,
where he worked for 15 years until his retirement from AFG in 1989.
“When I started my consulting business, Harry never failed to find time to read my
documents, make comments and suggestions and recommend me for consulting projects,”
says Valerie Block, a glass industry consultant. “That’s more than a colleague,
that’s a friend.
“When Harry left AFG, it seems he threw away his ties and suits. I can still picture
him in his typical meeting attire—slacks, short sleeve golf shirt and suspenders. But
don’t be fooled by his casual dress. Harry was all business when work had to get
done. He was a leader who knows how to negotiate sticky situations with great diplomacy
and humor,” she adds.
“Over some 25 plus years, it has been my privilege to consider Harry as a colleague
in the glass engineer fraternity—a teacher, a friend,” says Bob Brown of
Virginia Glass. “I’ve found his insight and abilities could always enlighten me,
and his judgement and guidance to be prudent and sound.”
But Miles is perhaps best known for the work he has done as a consultant for the Glass
Tempering Association and then the Glass Association of North America for the past ten
years.
During those ten years, he was in the middle of some of the biggest—and most
challenging—discussions in the industry. He was known as an expert technician with
knowledge beyond reproach and a skilled negotiator able to forge compromise when others
thought it was not possible. As one participant said “we always knew we’d get
the plain facts from Harry Miles.” “Harry will certainly be missed at GANA
meetings,” said the association’s executive director Bill Birch. “He helped
keep us all on track.”
In fact, Miles behavior at such meetings is the stuff of legend. As the recent GANA
newsletter said: “It’s hard to imagine the glass industry without Harry Miles to
advise, cajole, admonish and encourage all those involved in day-to-day technical trench
work … His experience and technical expertise have permitted him to serve variously
as the industry’s conscience on some issues, its voice of reason on others.
“For many of us, the meeting experience was not complete until Harry’s facial
color had run the gamut from a natural pink, for minor digressions from the intended
discussions, to bright red while waiting to respond to silly or just plain uninformed
suggestions or proposals …
“It is difficult, if not impossible, to calculate the influence any one individual
has had on an association or industry, but most GANA members agree that his fine hand is
evident in much of our technical information and will serve as an enduring reminder of his
commitment ...”
Miles surrounded by family.
USG
© Copyright 1999 Key Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. No reproduction of any type without expressed written permission.