DANIELS-ROBERT

 

AMERICAN  PATRIOT  AND  OUTSTANDING  PHILANTHROPIST

 

Robert William “Bill” Daniels earned a reputation as an American patriot and an outstanding philanthropist.  He was born on July 1, 1920, in Greeley, Colorado, where his father worked as a candy salesman and his mother was a housewife.  During a 1986 interview he said, “Ever since I was old enough to talk, I worked.  I think my first job was selling the Saturday Evening Post, door-to-door, and I was 8.”  He also sold his mother’s handmade lotion door-to-door as “Things were tough.”  In 1937 the family moved to New Mexico where Daniels was enrolled into the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell.  Concerning his two years of junior college study here he said, “I resisted, but it turned out that I loved the school and it taught me many of the disciplines that I enjoy.  During the summer, I worked as an oilfield pipeliner, as an oilfield roughneck, as a bellhop, and anywhere I could to help pay my college tuition.  I was very active in athletics and really had no interest in girls, too busy working and in sports.”  During his schooling Daniels played baseball, football, basketball and fought on the boxing team.  He was an undefeated Golden Gloves boxing champion.

 

After graduation Daniels enlisted in the Navy and became a fighter pilot, principally piloting a Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter.  He flew from the USS INTREPID (CV-11) and the escort carrier USS SANGAMON (CVE-26).  In 1942 he piloted his fighter during the Allied invasion of North Africa and the following year flew in the Solomon Islands area during the campaign in the Pacific.  He also served during the Korean War.  Daniels was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal with three gold clusters during his service in the Navy from which he retired in 1952 with the rank of Commander.  He earned the Bronze Star for rescuing shipmates trapped aboard the INTREPID after two Japanese kamikazes struck the ship on November 24, 1944.

 

After retiring from the Navy he moved to Casper, Wyoming, and entered the insurance business.  In 1952 he viewed television for the first time and soon could not get out of his mind that there had to be a way to bring television to remote towns such as Casper.  During World War II he had been exposed to radar, and although he was not electronically inclined, he knew enough to question whether the microwave would work.  Although cable TV existed it was sporadic around the country and was not offered in his area.  With the help of hired experts they succeeded in providing microwave signals to Casper and his enterprise forever changed America’s relationship with sports, politics, entertainment and the news.  It is reported that by 1959 his company operated hundreds of cable systems in almost every state, representing 80 percent of all sales in the United States.  By 1988 his company merged with United Artists Communications, was employing more than 100,000 people and managed over $2 billion in cable sales each year.

 

Daniels’ success and reputation in the business community was matched only by his equally impressive reputation as a selfless philanthropist.  During his lifetime he donated millions to countless educational and philanthropic organizations.  In 1987 he established the Young Americans Bank, the first chartered bank in America dedicated to proving a hands-on learning experience for young people under the age of 21.  He also endowed the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver to promote ethics in business.  Upon his death his estate transferred to the Daniels Fund making it the largest charitable foundation in the Rocky Mountain region.

 

CDR Daniels has been honored with a prominent exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, which displays his picture, a short biography, his Bronze Star and Air Medal, and the helmet and goggles he wore while flying during World War II.

 

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)