Giles died at home Aug. 6, 2024, after a lifetime in the Heber Valley. He was 99.
He was born in 1925, grew up in Heber City and played on Wasatch High School’s only undefeated football team in school history. At 18, as a high school junior, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in North Africa, Italy and Germany in World War II. He was awarded a high school diploma 70 years later.
One of his sons, Ernie Giles, said he believes his father was the last surviving World War II veteran in the valley.
“As far as I’m aware, he is the last,” he said.
Known as “Cal” to most, he’s remembered as a neighbor always willing to help, a devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a loving husband to his high school sweetheart, Amber, and a role model to his nine children.
The Heber Valley changed dramatically in his lifetime: he saw the first airplane land at the Heber Valley Airport, learned to use tractors in his farming in the 1960s, and marveled at changes in technology.
Ernie Giles said one of his favorite stories about his father comes from a day when the two were riding through the North Fields.
“I’m going to share a little short story with you,” he said. “It was a cold winter day. We was going for a ride up through there, and I had my phone synced to my Tahoe. It rang, I visited with the fellow that called for a few minutes, and I got off the phone. And he looked over at me, says, ‘Isn’t that something.’ And I says, ‘What’s that?’ He says, ‘I used to have to heat up a rock in a wood-burning oven to keep my feet from freezing off, going up here to feed with a team and a wagon, and here we are driving in a heated automobile, talking on the phone.’ I thought, man, he has seen a lot.”
Family members say Cal Giles believed in service and always had a kind word to offer. He taught his children to help neighboring farmers by hauling hay or picking rocks.
Ernie Giles said his father was a pillar of the Heber Valley community.
“It’s been quite an honor to have him as a dad,” Ernie Giles said.
Cal Giles will be inducted into Wasatch High School’s Hall of Fame at a ceremony Thursday at 7 p.m. in the high school commons.
