Miles Jamison Willard was born on June 10, 1924 to Miles Jamison and Ethel Stevens Willard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Early on it was evident that Willard had two great passions in life: music and chemistry.

His enthusiasm for chemistry led to a path of higher education at Drexel Institute (now Drexel University). Willard studied chemical engineering until the United State's involvement in World War II. He was drafted into the U.S. Army, and saw much of the fighting overseas, including the Battle of the Bulge. The Army eventually assigned Willard to study engineering at Rutgers University. Afterwards he was transferred Los Alamos, New Mexico where his duties included working on valves and pressure gauges for a military project. Later he learned the work he had done in New Mexico was for the atomic bomb. After World War II, Willard returned to Drexel and completed his chemical engineering degree in 1949.

Willard's career in food technology began at his employment at the Eastern Regional Research Laboratory of the USDA in Philadelphia. Here, he and a colleague developed a new drying process for the manufacture of instant mashed potato flakes. In 1955 his career path took him to Idaho, where he designed and operated the world's first commercial potato flake plant for the Rogers Brothers Company. He worked as the Director of Research for about nine years.

In 1973, Willard established the Miles Willard Company, which later became Miles Willard Technologies and is currently located in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He ran the company until his retirement in 1998. Miles Jamison Willard passed away on November 26, 2004 at 80 years old.