Jim Giles (meteorologist)

Jim Giles (1939-2006) was a longtime television meteorologist with KOTV Channel 6 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Career

Giles began his career in 1961. While on duty with the United States Air Force, he served as a weather commander at Nha Trang weather station in Vietnam, where his forecasts held life or death consequences. Pilots flying dangerous missions counted on his forecasts.Giles also served at the prestigious Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City, which at the time was the nation’s premiere facility for forecasting severe weather, and for the first time, tornadoes. It was during those years that development began on Doppler weather radar.Giles joined KOTV in 1981 as Chief Meteorologist. His easygoing style soon won the hearts of viewers, and his expertise and calm, reassuring presence during severe weather, won their trust. In 1988, he was part of a major advancement in local severe weather forecasting when he introduced Doppler 6 Radar, the same technology that he had helped pioneer years before.In April 1991, Giles' foresight and expertise changed severe weather forecasting forever with a new technology: Doppler 6 Pathfinder. For the first time ever, meteorologists could pinpoint precisely when and precisely where severe storms would strike. Just 3 days after installing Pathfinder at KOTV, he introduced the revolutionary technology to the world when devastating tornadoes swept across northeastern Oklahoma. Viewers and experts alike credited Giles and Pathfinder with saving countless lives because he was able to give viewers the earliest warnings ever, and with pinpoint accuracy. Today, virtually every television weather center in the country uses a variation of that early breakthrough technology.Introducing Pathfinder is what Giles considered his produest achievement.

Giles' Coats for Kids

Since 1986, Giles spearheaded the Giles' Coats For Kids Campaign, which provided warm winter coats for Oklahomans who would otherwise do without. Over 200,000 coats have been donated to date.

Later life

In November 2006, Giles retired from KOTV after 25 years. In his final interview, Giles said he wanted to be remembered for "just doing a good job."On December 20, 2006 Giles died after battling a series of health problems. In the days following his passing, local news stations across northeastern Oklahoma paid tribute to Giles, reflecting on his immense contributions to severe weather forecasting and the culture of northeastern Oklahoma. Among those who paid tribute to Giles were personalities on competing stations such as KTUL and KJRH, as well as past and present colleagues at KOTV.

Legacy

The Giles Coats for Kids program continues, with thousands of coats being donated each year.Giles' wife, Hannah, continues to maintain the partnership her late husband founded with Bennett Steel, Inc. to sell Jim Giles Safe Rooms, which are designed to withstand an F5 torando.

In 2007, Giles was posthumously inducted to the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. The same year, the University of Oklahoma, Giles' alma mater, named a classroom after Giles.