Clayton Niles’s life spans the history of telecommunications, an industry he helped build and influence. Born months after the first transatlantic speech signal was sent from New York to London, Clayton grew up to become a pioneer in wireless and a champion for competition in communications services. Along the way he weathered the Great Depression, joined the Navy near the close of World War II, preached in a small Presbyterian Church, and worked for the Governor of Arizona.
A fascination with radio and electronics led Clayton into the radio business. After his tour of duty in 1945-46 and subsequent graduation from the University of Arizona, he returned to Tucson and formed Niles Radio Corporation, the first of several communications entities he founded or acquired. In 1952 he received a license for general communications services in Tucson as a Miscellaneous Common Carrier (later Radio Common Carrier), a new class of carrier authorized by the FCC. Clayton became involved with the National Association of Radiotelephone, the industry association representing radiotelephone carriers. He served on its board for a number of years and as its president in 1959-60.
He and his wife, Jo Ann, operated and expanded the paging and mobile phone business for many years and in 1973 merged with Communications Industries, creating the first wireless conglomerate. Clayton became the company’s President, then Chairman. He served in this role until Communications Industries was acquired by Pacific Telesis in 1986.
Clayton’s leadership of the early wireless industry was unparalleled in its tenacity and scope. He worked tirelessly to advance the ability of the nascent wireless community to gain interconnection rights to the public switched telephone network, and later to gain access to the cellular spectrum allocation. His entrepreneurship and innovation changed the communications landscape, and paved the way for the robust wireless environment we enjoy today.
In August 2011, Clayton and Jo Ann Niles celebrated their 64th anniversary. His autobiography, published in 2006, is titled Managing Change. Clayton was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2011.