John Orr Giles ’29

Jack died on Aug. 21, 1989, at the Veterans Admn. Hospital in Miami. He prepared for college at the Blake School, in Minneapolis. At Princeton, he played freshman football, baseball, and, later, scrub football. He was a member of Tiger Inn, and his roommates were Jeff Alison, Chet Baylis, Norm Ott, and George Clark.

Upon graduation, he worked at Bankers Trust and then Lumbermans Mutual Casualty. In 1940, he joined Millers National Insurance. In 1969, he retired from insurance to spend time on his family's manufacturing enterprises; he was chairman of F. P. Smith Corp. (producers of wire cloth) and president of the Wacker-Washington Corp. During the war, Jack served in the Navy in the Marshall-Gilbert area of the Pacific. He retired with the rank of commander. Jack's public service was notable. He was mayor of Lake Forest, Ill., president of the Lake County Board of School Trustees, governor of the Onwentsia Club, and a trustee of the Lake Forest Hospital, the Lake Forest Academy, and the First Presbyterian Church.

In 1949, Jack married Daisiana Smith Pirie. They were divorced, and in 1977, he married Virginia, who survives. Other survivors are his son, Harry Franklin Giles, and stepchildren Suzanne, Dale, and Sharon Pirie. The class extends sincere sympathy to Jack's family.

The Class of 1929