In Loving Memory of Clarence C. Miles
April 15, 1919 - December 3, 2016
Obituary
Clarence Clay Miles was born in Bluff Springs, Texas on April 15, 1919, and passed away on December 3, 2016. He was the son of Henry Clay Miles and Annie Crumley Miles. Clarence was predeceased by his wife Velera Kuhn Miles (March, 2012), sisters Edith Miles Adcock, Millie Miles Currington Smith, Lillie (Sue) Miles Curry, and Ila Mae Miles Allen Davidson, and brothers Delmas, Olen, Claude, and O.J. Miles.
Clarence's mother died while giving birth to a baby boy in December 1924. His father was unable to raise all nine children on his own, so Clarence and his siblings were split up and sent to live with various relatives.
In the midst of The Great Depression Clarence left school after the sixth grade to help support his family and as a very young man in the late '30s, moved to Austin, Texas where he worked at St. Edwards University Farm. Here he worked with his mentor and future father-in-law, Walter T. Kuhn, Sr. and met Walter's daughter, Velera Kuhn, who became the love of his life. They were married on June 30, 1940.
Through his love of carpentry and woodworking, he later became a custom home builder. In 1954, Clarence and Velera moved to Houston, Texas and combining his carpentry skills, and their penchant for wanting to be their own boss, together they founded Circle Saw Shop. Their small saw sharpening business on Canal Street in East Houston provided sharpening services for the individual woodworker, residential builder, and many of the largest commercial builders in the Houston area.
Over the years, this niche business grew to include retail woodworking tool sales and in 1986 moved to its current location in the Heights area. It has served several generations of customers whose fathers and grandfathers traded at Circle Saw in its early beginnings. Many of those large commercial builders are still in business today, and still trade at the store which has developed from a one room saw sharpening shop to a business that competes with the nation's largest builder supply chain stores.
After retirement, Clarence continued to visit Circle Saw on a weekly basis to check on things and visit old friends. He truly appreciated all the people who worked with him at Circle Saw over the years. Circle Saw remains a family owned and operated business to this day. While Clarence put his heart and soul into the business, he and Velera were also avid hunters, loved going to Lake Austin, and drove thousands of miles over the years in their RV. For many years, there was always a family deer lease that created such special memories for Clarence and Velera, where their siblings and families gathered to hunt, tell tales around the camp fire, and just appreciate being with each other.
He and Velera also made annual hunting trips to Colorado with some of their lifelong hunting cronies. Clarence never met a stranger, and as such, he had many friends that loved his simple, down home personality. Many of those friends were members of the Streamline Royal Rovers and Stars of Texas RV travel clubs. While he and Velera had no children of their own, Clarence always made sure that his nieces and nephews were part of his life. His love and affection was shown by spending countless hours with them swimming in the lake, taking them into the deer blinds, or just spending weekends and holidays around the children he considered "his kids".
Clarence is survived by his sister-in-law, Gussie Kuhn Hebel and her husband William Hebel of Austin, his sister-in-law Louise Knapek Kuhn of Houston, and many loving nieces and nephews.
From a modest beginning near downtown Houston in 1954 with Clarence sharpening hand saws and blades and his wife "Sis" waiting on customers we have grown with 1 basic belief "Solve the customers problem".
From that we have grown to a company that ships across the country and across town, with everything from sharpening cutting tools, repairing most major brands of tools, electric, air powered and 2 cycle gasoline trimmers, chainsaws and blowers.
As you can tell we also sell and service an immense line of Professional Grade hand and power tools, with a diverse staff and knowledge base we can solve your problems.
Still today we are a family owned and operated company and tools are our business.