Apr. 14—Owensboro business leaders Billy Joe Miles, Don Penn Moore III and Tommy Thompson were named the 2023 Owensboro Business Hall of Fame Laureates on Thursday afternoon, during Junior Achievement of West Kentucky's annual Business Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Moore, Thompson and Miles' daughters, Debra Seymour and Rep. Suzanne Miles, accepted the awards at the Owensboro Convention Center. The event was sponsored by German American Bank.
"All three have demonstrated excellence in leadership" in their fields and inspired the city's business community, master of ceremonies Kirk Kirkpatrick told the audience in the convention center's German American Bank ballroom.
Junior Achievement works to "empower young people to own their economic success," according to J.A. materials at the ceremony. The program teaches "work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills."
Kirkpatrick said of Miles, Moore and Thompson, "we applaud them for the example they are setting for our youth."
Miles, who died in 2018, received Historical Laureate induction into the Hall of Fame.
Miles, who received a degree in agriculture from Western Kentucky University in 1962, expanded the family farm's businesses selling seed corn, fertilizer and other products and extended into bulk fuel sales, convenience stores and oil change businesses in the 1970s.
Miles was president of Miles Farm Supply, Marathon Fuels, and Miles LP Gas Inc., and started or was involved in several other businesses. Miles also served on various boards, including the University of Kentucky board of trustees and the board of what is now Owensboro Health.
"Today, he will have passed away five years and one month to the day," Seymour said of Miles. "I think he would be honored and humbled to think Junior Achievement would have thought of him."
Suzanne Miles said of him, "our father truly enjoyed people" and worked to promote farm practices by bringing farmers from around the world to the United States, and vise versa.
By working with people, Billy Joe Miles experienced "the sheer joy of seeing the talents of people they could not see in themselves," Suzanne Miles said.
Moore joined the family business, Don Moore Automotive, in 1982. When the company was founded, it had $17,800 in sales its first year.
Today, the Moore Automotive Group has more than $215 million in annual sales and sells 12 brands of cars, including Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Chevrolet and Jeep. Moore's television commercials also became part of local lingo, with "It's Hot, Don" becoming one of the most recognized commercial tag lines, according to Junior Achievement.