Bartholomew Hamilton Chilton

Former CFTC Commissioner Bart Hamilton Chilton of Gulf Breeze, FL, Hot Springs Village, AR and Arlington, VA passed in peace on Saturday, April 27, 2019 surrounded by family at Georgetown University Medical Hospital, at the age of 58. His courage, civility, grace, wit, dignity, indomitable spirit, along with our tremendous love and great memories survive the body that ultimately yielded to complications from pancreatic and related cancers.

Bart was born on May 1, 1960, the son of Daniel Tanner and Carol Lynn Bartholomew Chilton of Wilmington, DE. He is a descendant of William Parish Chilton, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, State Senator and House Representative, the Reverend Claudius Lysius Chilton, Methodist preacher, writer, poet and author of The Chilton Music of Standard Hymns, the grandson of Thomas Hamilton Chilton, DuPont chemical engineer, lecturer and working member of the Manhattan Project.

Bart grew up in Ogden Dunes, IN, working a year after high school at Inland Steel in East Chicago, before attending Purdue University. His leadership skills emerged early as President of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. It was at Purdue and in Fort Wayne that he caught the political bug, working for local Democrat candidates, deemed underdogs, who were extremely challenged by the lack of financial support from the National Democratic Party. By the winter of 1983-1984, Bart volunteered with the Mondale for President campaign, traveling from New Hampshire and Iowa to Oklahoma as a field organizer and ultimately landing back near home base in Chicago in the general election where he met his wife, Sherry Daggett Chilton, who was working in the collar counties as a field organizer for then Rep. Paul Simon (D-IL).

Though they had spoken once on the telephone in August soon after Bart arrived, it wasn’t until the night of the infamous Bush-Ferraro Vice Presidential Debate that the two locked eyes and their lives were intertwined as not only political and policy partners, but rejoined as soulmates.

After November, Sherry was asked by Senator-elect Paul Simon to come to Washington to serve on his Senate staff. Bart, with several offers from Chicago, Cook County and Louisville in hand, dismissed them and opted instead to assist freshman Congressman Terry Bruce-IL from Champaign-Urbana set up his Washington, DC office. There Bart quickly established himself as a progressive, effective legislative correspondent, assistant, and director, working on issues ranging from science, space and technology, energy, environment, foreign affairs, budget, agriculture and nutrition, finely honing his organizing and communication skills, establishing a network of colleagues and friends from both sides of the aisle to whom he always extended respect and courtesy, regardless of their positions.

In the House, election cycles catapulted him to the offices of Reps. Jim Jontz-IN, Sander Levin-MI, Earl Pomeroy-ND and Jill Long (IN). With each, he was the ultimate colleague and public servant, never forgetting from whence he came, particularly his days in the Indiana coke furnaces with blue collar workers, who, like he, drove home each afternoon covered in the soot of the mills.

Bart’s interests were many and varied. He was a sailor and extraordinary captain who enjoyed over a decade cruising the Chesapeake Bay, exploring regional history, savoring blue crabs with a beer or two, navigating the storms as well as the irons, and finding hurricane or gunk holes into which he could safely drop anchor with his family and friends aboard the 25 foot “fiberglass tent” he christened “Recess”. When the young couple could finally afford an inflatable raft to enable their English Springer Spaniel, Captain Gulliver, to accompany them and their young daughter Erin, he named the dinghy “Sine Die”, one of his innumerable playful and creative engagements with the art of words and poetry.

Golf was a passion he developed early in life and shared enthusiastically with friends, family and strangers alike. He enjoyed an eidetic imagery, capable of remembering every shot on every hole played anywhere in the world countless times. If asked, he was able to recount every shot of his playing partner. One of his greatest joys in recent years was mentoring his grandsons, inspiring in them a love for the game, the rules, mental focus, enthusiasm and skills that will offer them a lifetime of recreation, personal challenge and accomplishment. In the final weeks of his life, in the wee hours of sleepless mornings, he was on a 12th or 14th hole, perhaps on a teebox waiting to hit, or standing on a green eyeing a long putt. He discussed golf and wrote his TV show in his sleep and throughout the nights.

The Commish loved music: 80s rock, 70s rock, a bit of symphony here and there, and a little Rat Pack from time to time. He played the piano, guitar and harmonica, which he taught his youngest grandson to play, convertible top down, Beatles “Love Me Do” blaring, Connor doing a John Lennon riff, and Grandpa beaming along the GW Parkway or along the Gulf Islands National Seashore. With Connor’s mother, Erin, it was Aerosmith’s Stephen Tyler, or Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, maybe some Tom Petty, Van Halen, Genesis, Jackson Browne, Steve Earle, Stones, Bon Jovi, Neil Young, Melissa Etheridge, Willie Nelson, or Fleetwood Mac thrown in. He had a natural ear for music, sitting down at the piano and picking out note by note a Wyndam Hill or Mozart piece until he was playing it seamlessly. His abundant knowledge of and joy from music overflowed into his offices, public remarks, speeches and media interviews. A scan of his public remarks listed on the CFTC website reads like a playlist of the music lover and poet that he was.

He was an avid tennis player, as was his father. He was a runner who loved circling the mall, or taking on a beach be it Miami, Pensacola, the Virgin Islands where he and Sherry married, or in the Caymans. He was always in motion, enjoying each person, each moment. He was kinetic, and his enthusiasm infectious. He loved pranks, storytelling so refined that he became quite adept at jocular play with unsuspecting folks. His jesting tales are legend.

Bart’s tremendous creativity, intellect, grace and integrity were called upon and invigorated over the 35 years he dedicated to public service in the US Senate, hammering out a bipartisan Farm Bill alongside Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle; as Deputy Chief of Staff to USDA Secretary Dan Glickman in the Clinton Administration, helping to shepherd everything from Food and Nutrition to National Forest Service wildfire management, to Rural Utilities and Electric, securing grants for rural America, helping to extend much needed water, infrastructure, telecommunications and health care into underserved areas, assisting minority and small farmers, as always serving as a voice for those whose voices can more readily be squelched by powerful elite and well-financed lobbying efforts.

Bart was a lifelong public servant, an advocate who wielded government as a constructive tool for the people and generously shared with others his compass, chart and sextant to successfully develop and execute strategies for effecting progressive change. It is evident in much of his private consulting work with small environmental and technology startups, but also with his time with the National Farmers Union, Farm Credit Administration and DLA Piper.

When a seat became available at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, he was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate. There he quickly developed the moniker of “not your grandfather’s regulator”, bringing with him the courtesy and discipline of responding to all correspondence, every email and text sent to him. He never used a robo mail process, rather whether it was from the beach, a plane, or on the regional Amtrak commuting to and from New York, he texted on his Blackberry personal responses to each and every request. When allegations were made of silver market manipulation, he pursued them insisting on an investigation over objections. He used implementation of the Dodd-Frank legislation to push for fairer, more transparent markets. His myriad remarks in Commission hearings speak to his passion, policies and prowess in using the platform that he considered an honor and privilege. While his outspoken positions as an independent Commissioner were not always in line with those of the Obama Administration, he continued to fight for what he believed in, working with the regulated exchanges, consumers and colleagues for an open but fair market perspective. His book, Ponzimonium: How Con Artists are Ripping Off America, was the first written and published by a sitting CFTC Commissioner and spoke to the need of consumer education and protection in advance of the creation of the Consumer Financial Protections Board.

He enjoyed the opportunity to communicate through national and international media outlets, and became a regular on CNBC’s Squawk Box, CNN, CCN, NPR, and MSN’s The Ed Schultz Show. It was in those segments with Ed and bound by a shared commitment to blue collar workers, farmers and average consumers, speaking of oil prices, public policy and politics, that the opportunity for Bart to host his own financial news show was born. When Ed left MSN for RT, he made a compelling argument to Bart that there was no time in his own professional career when the imperative for truth in media, transparency, and non-corporate, ad-financed media was more vital. After meeting the RT team, and great deliberation, he chose a huge career shift, from guest to host, from partisan policy advocate to balanced business journalist.

With RT America, the “Commish” hit his stride. He loved every day, the unfettered independence to pick his stories, write his segments, and select guests who could most ably help communicate the stories behind the events in a bipartisan, unvarnished way. He eagerly took on the steep learning curve of a new career, leveraging the keen knowledge and insights acquired in 30 years of public service. In one year, he led the RT finance show Boom Bust to a new level, it quickly becoming one of the most popular programs on the network. Bart believed strongly in the power of education, courtesy, humor, celebration and a kind word. He lived simply and humbly, worked hard and cheerfully, extended respect and dignity to all whom he met.

In his final days, the medical and nursing staff of MGUH, to whom the family is so deeply grateful, spoke often of the extreme admiration they had quickly developed for this man of keen wit, kindness, civility, gentility, grace and gratitude. We have inherited the enormous challenge to carry on those qualities that are often lost in our contemporary political dialogue. With his passing, we have lost a great friend, father, grandfather, son, brother, husband and teacher.

Bart was predeceased by his loving father Daniel Tanner Chilton and his stepfather, Ronald Petti, both amazing men and mentors. He is survived by his wife, Sherry Chilton, daughter and son-in-law Erin and Jeremy Boston, grandchildren Jeremy Jr., Connor and Caeleigh Boston of Gulf Breeze, FL; his mother Lynn Petti of Hot Springs Village, AR; his step-mother Annette Chilton of Catonsville, MD; his mother-in-law Millie Daggett of Normandy, TN; sister Beth Chilton of Grosse Pointe, MI, brother and sister-in-law Daniel Tanner and Janna Chilton of Conover, NC; step-siblings Karen Clark Salinas, Ellicott City, MD, Christopher (Ellen) Petti, Centennial, CO, Jennifer (Colin) Watkins, Ogden Dunes, IN, Jessica (David) Butts-Anchorage, AK, Andrea (Joe) Uhl, Denver, CO; brother-in-law John Daggett, Colona, IL, sister-in-law and brother-in-law Cathy and Dean Daconto of Normandy, TN; 6 nephews and 3 nieces.

A memorial service will be held in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia, at Historic Christ Church, 118 North Washington Street on May 20, at 10AM. A celebration of his life, accompanied by a light lunch will follow immediately in the Church auditorium. Placement of his cremated remains will be private.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Bart’s name to KoDiscovery.org, to advance the research of Dr. YoungKeeKo, who is developing access to the extremely promising metabolic cancer treatment of 3 bromo-pyruvate(3BP) or to Lewis & Clark University’s Earthrise Law Center for their tremendous legal work in protecting the environment and waterways. https://law.lclark.edu/centers/earthrise/support_us/ .

The family is deeply grateful for the outpouring of love, prayer and support they have received from Bart’s colleagues and friends across the globe.