Harrell Edmonds "Eddie" Chiles (May 11, 1910 – August 22, 1993) was the founder of the Western Company of North America and an owner of the Texas Rangers. He was also the paternal uncle of actress

Lois Chiles Lois Cleveland Chiles (born April 15, 1947)Profile
entertainment.msn.com; accessed April 9, 2016. ...

. Eddie Chiles was born in

Itasca, Texas Itasca is a city in Hill County in Northern Central Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,644. History Itasca began as a railroad station for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in 1881, and was incorporated in 1885. In ...

to Harsh Edmonds Chiles and Jewell Files. After graduating from

Wentworth Military Academy Wentworth Military Academy and College was a private two-year military college and high school in Lexington, Missouri. Wentworth was one of six total military junior colleges in the United States. The institution was founded in 1880 and closed in ...

in Lexington, Missouri, he worked as an oil patch roustabout and as a merchant marine before hitchhiking to

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...

in 1930. In 1934, he graduated from the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

with a B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering. In 1939, after working as a Sales Engineer with Reed Roller Bit Company in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, he founded the Western Company of North America. He started the company with two trucks and three employees. Western served the petroleum industry with technical services required in the discovery and production of oil and gas. The company grew to become a major

oil services This is a list of oilfield service companies – notable companies that provide services to the petroleum exploration and production industry but do not typically produce petroleum. In the list, notable subsidiary companies and divisions are list ...

firm, primarily in acidizing,

fracturing Fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displa ...

and cementing. At its peak, the Western Company had over 5,000 employees and annual worldwide revenues of over $500 million. During the 1970s, the Western Company also operated an

offshore drilling Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...

company run by Mr. Chiles' brother, Clay Chiles. The company was sold to BJ Services in 1995. Chiles bought the Texas Rangers

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team in 1980 and served as chairman of the club until 1989 when he sold the team to a group of investors that included the future

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

; New York

stockbroker A stockbroker is a regulated broker, broker-dealer, or registered investment adviser (in the United States) who may provide financial advisory and investment management services and execute transactions such as the purchase or sale of stocks an ...

Richard Gilder Richard Gilder Jr. (May 31, 1932 – May 12, 2020), was an American philanthropist and co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He also headed the brokerage firm Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co., whose specialty is tradi ...

(who later married Chiles' niece, Lois); Frank L. Morsani; and the

Mack family Mack may refer to: People *Mack (given name) *Mack (surname) *Reinhold Mack, German record producer and sound engineer, often credited as simply "Mack" *Richard Machowicz Richard John "Mack" Machowicz ( ; May 30, 1965 – January 2, 2017) was ...

. As an advocate for a smaller and less intrusive federal government, Chiles was also known for his 1970s radio commentaries. His trade-mark sign-on "I'm Eddie Chiles, and I'm mad as hell," created an incredible demand for bumper stickers that read "I'm mad too, Eddie!" Western also featured television commercials telling viewers ''"If you don't have an oil well, get one you'll love doing business with Western!"'' Through these conservative radio commentaries, Chiles became a folk hero in the southwest section of the nation. He died in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

Personal life

Chiles was married to Fran Hafer, and had two children from a previous marriage, Jerry Edmond Chiles and Carol Ann Chiles Ballard.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiles, Eddie Major League Baseball owners Texas Rangers owners People from Itasca, Texas 1910 births 1993 deaths Wentworth Military Academy and College alumni University of Oklahoma alumni American businesspeople in the oil industry 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American businesspeople