Don started his career after graduation from Northwestern University by beating the draft board, joining the Navy and going to Officer Candidate School where he became an Ensign in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps. After a tour at Port Hueneme, California where he studied Navy Contract Law he was given an assignment as Assistant Resident Officer in Charge of Construction at the U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois.
With the Navy he quickly became known as "the change order kid" after having estimated and processed more than 300 change orders in 1-1/2 years. At the height of this career the Navy relocated him to Norfolk, Virginia where he served out the remainder of his time in service as staff officer for the Atlantic Fleet Seabees. From the military he went to work for the Navy as a civilian at the Chesapeake Division, Bureau of Yards and Docks (now NAVFAC) in the Washington Navy Yard. Being previously highly qualified, he took the job of "estimator" in the specifications and estimates branch of their design division. His career advanced when he began calling himself a "cost engineer" and led a revolt to organize a separate Estimating Branch of which he, of course, became Branch Manager. Soon after that the Bureau forced the Division to fill a mandated value engineering billet. Don was given the new VE job because his boss felt what better than an estimator to know the value of things? His fame significantly increased when he gave credit to his boss for the VE development of a new modular suite barracks design which earned the Division the Defense Department VE Award of the Year personally presented to him by President Lyndon B. Johnson at a breakfast ceremony at the White House in the spring of 1967. Don then received a promotion and took the position of Deputy Director Value Engineering for the Naval Air Systems Command. He once said that taking this position proved that a value engineer didn't need to know anything about anything except for function and how to use the job plan to solve problems. He certainly didn't know anything about aircraft, rockets or missiles yet through application of function analysis the Command made its goal for the year for the very first time. Yet, when the opportunity for advancement surfaced again, this time as VE Director for GSA's Public Buildings Service, Don jumped ship for the job. He started VE in construction for the Government by inserting the first VE clauses in professional service A-E contracts and he approached SAVE to begin the certification program and wrote their first Certification Manual. The year was 1971. Since his retirement from Government in 1984, he has traveled around the world performing value studies as a consultant and worked for three Commercial Building portfolios where he performed Property Management and Development services.
Don now serves as President of the Lawrence D. Miles Value Foundation. |