Earle M. Chiles

Earle Meyer Chiles (February 4, 1933 – June 23, 2016) was an American businessman and philanthropist from the US state of Oregon. He was born into a wealthy and influential business family. Chiles attended Menlo College and then graduate school at Stanford University. He worked in his family's retail business in Oregon, including serving on the board of directors of Fred Meyer, a large retail company founded by his grandfather. He was also chief executive officer of Earle Chiles and Affiliated Companies and president of the Chiles Foundation. Over the years, he contributed financially to numerous educational institutions and non-profit organizations.

Early life

Chiles was born in Portland, Oregon on February 4, 1933, the son of Earle A. Chiles and Virginia (Hughes) Chiles. His family was one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Oregon. His father was the stepson of Fred G. Meyer, founder of the Fred Meyer chain of grocery and retail stores. The senior Chiles served as president of the Fred Meyer company from 1955 to 1968. He also founded the Chiles Foundation in 1949.

Chiles grew up in Portland.

Businessman

Chiles spent most of his adult life working in family businesses related to the Fred Meyer retail chain and the Chiles Foundation. He served on the board of directors of the Fred Meyer company, a multibillion-dollar company founded by his grandfather. Chiles was also the chief executive officer of Chiles and Affiliated Companies a real estate investment and property management firm based in Portland composed of several loosely associated partnerships that purchased land and then leased the property to Fred Meyer for its store sites. The company owned property throughout Oregon and in other Pacific Northwest states.

After the Fred Meyer retail chain was acquired in a leveraged buyout in 1981, Chiles became a minority shareholder in the business. This included minority shares in several real estate partnerships. These partnerships owned properties that were leased to the Fred Meyer company. In 1986, a conflict arose between Chiles and Fred Meyer executives regarding the management of six partnerships that owned sites where 15 stores were located. Chiles filed a lawsuit against Fred Meyer management, alleging that company officers, who held the majority share of the partnership stock, prevented minority stockholders from participating in management decisions and then entered into lease agreements with the Fred Meyer company based on artificially low real estate valuations for partnership properties. Ultimately, the court found in favor of Chiles. The judgement was for $18.7 million . Chiles and his mother were the principal beneficiaries of that judgement.

Philanthropy

In addition to his business interests, Chiles was engaged in wide-ranging philanthropy throughout his life. Much of this work was done through the Chiles Foundation, established by his father in 1949. Chiles became executive director of the foundation in 1968 and continued in that position until 1983 when he became the foundation's president. He led the foundation until his death in 2016. During his tenure as president, the foundation contributed to numerous educational and cultural institutions and provided grants and scholarships to thousands of individuals. The foundation was also a major contributor to medical research institutions and healthcare projects. In addition, he served on the Oregon State University Foundation board of trustees, the Portland State University Foundation Board, and the oversight board for the Institute of International Education in San Francisco. He was also a senator of the board at LMU Munich in Germany. and the German government's German-American Friendship Award. The Earle A. Chiles Business Center at the University of Oregon was the first privately donor-initiated building on that campus. It houses classrooms, a computer lab, and the business research institute. He also financed the Virginia Hughes Chiles Atrium in Boston University's School of Management and the Earle A. Chiles Center on the Spirit of the West at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon.