John Chiles

John Chiles, a native of Waxahachie, received his BBA in 1950 and his Juris Doctorate in 1952 both from Baylor. He was President of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce and a member of Alpha Chi Scholarship Society, Delta Sigma Pi and Phi Delta Phi. Upon his graduation, he entered the U.S. Air Force, serving as a Staff Judge Advocate for three years in both the United States and England, as a First Lieutenant. While serving in England he met and married Marie, also a First Lieutenant, serving as the Base Adjutant. After being discharged as a Captain in 1955 he joined Humble Oil and Refining Co., in Houston, now ExxonMobil. He retired as Senior Staff Counsel in 1982.

Marie Chiles, a native of Long Island, New York, received her Bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a Baylor Alumna By Choice. She retired from the business world in 1960 and became a full-time volunteer for worthy non-profits including The Blue Birds Circle at Methodist Hospital, the Houston Symphony and Holly Hail Retirement Community, serving on their Boards. She was a Docent at Bayou Bend and became an avid student of the Decorative Arts studying in England at the Victorian Society in 1990 and the Attingham Summer School in 1991.

John and Marie have been long-time advocates for the Law School establishing two Endowed Scholarships and “The Starr’s Federalist Papers Lecture Series.” They were the founders and organizers of the Strecker Associates in 1989, the original support group for the Mayborn Museum on the Baylor campus. John served as President of the Associates as well as Project Chair for the building of the Museum which opened in 2004. They are Charter Members of Baylor’s Old Main Society, the Endowed Scholarship Society, and Baylor’s Medallion Fellowship. They received Baylor’s Milton T. Gregory Distinguished Service Award, in 1990 the W.R. White Meritorious Service Award and in 2012 they were awarded the prestigious Founder’s Medal from Baylor.

In Waco, where they lived from 1984-1992, John served as President of the Baylor Law School Alumni Association and as President and Chairman of the Board of Brazos Higher Education Service Corporation, Inc. for ten years. Marie was the Director of the Barnes Decorative Arts Course for Hispanic Waco Foundation 1985-1994.

They moved to Dallas in 1952 where Marie became coordinator of the Friends of the Decorative Arts at the Dallas Museum of Art (1992-97) and special projects coordinator at the Dallas Heritage Society for Old City Park, The Historic Village of Dallas 1998-2006. John was on the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center of Waxahachie Board of Directors, 2010-2019, during one of the most dynamic periods in its one hundred year history.

In 2008 they became members of the Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing Dean’s Board where they established The Good Samaritan Dean’s Fund and an Endowed Scholarship in Nursing in 2009 and provided three simulators for the Sim Training Lab. They received the First Annual Friends of Nursing Award in 2011. They made a significant donation to the new Academic Building. They served on the LHSON Gala Task Force during its ten years of successful fundraising.