Background

Frederick Taylor Gates was born on July 22, 1853, in Maine, Broome County, New York. He was the son of Rev. Granville and Sarah Jane (Bowers) Gates.

On his father’s side he was descended from George Gates, born in England in 1634, who as a boy came to Hartford, Connecticut, consigned to Capt. Nicholas Olmstead, whose daughter, Sarah, he married; on his mother’s side, from George Bower(s) who was a freeman of Plymouth, Massachusets, in 1637.

Rev. Granville Gates was pastor of small Baptistchurches in New York state from 1854 to 1867, in connection with which he showed ability to build up feeble interests; and from 1867 to 1885, was first missionary and then superintendent of missions under the American Baptist Home Missionary Society in Kansas.

Education

Frederick, supporting himself in part by serving as clerk in store and bank, prepared for college and graduated from the University of Rochester in 1877, and from the Rochester Theological Seminary in 1880. From its founding until his death, he was president of its board of trustees.

Career

In 1881, Frederick was ordained to the Baptist ministry, and became pastor of the Central Church, Minneapolis. In 1888, he resigned his church and undertook the raising of an endowment for Pillsbury Academy, a Baptist school in Minnesota, in which task he displayed exceptional ability to plan and execute a financial campaign.

Upon the organization of the American Baptist Education Society, that same year, he was appointed its corresponding secretary. He, at once, made a thorough study of Baptist educational interests in all parts of the country, and decided that the first great need was an institution of learning of high grade in Chicago.

Ever since the passing of the old University of Chicago in 1886, such an institution had been in the minds of some, including Thomas W. Goodspeed and William R. Harper, who had interested John D. Rockefeller in the project.

When Gates was making one of his Western trips Rockefeller asked him to look into some investments which he had recently made.

His report disclosed such extraordinary ability to get at facts, analyze them, and draw sound conclusions, that in 1893 Rockefeller invited him to become associated with his interests.

Through this connection, he was able to render great and varied service. He became the guiding force in many of Rockefeller’s enterprises, notably in connection with his iron-ore projects in Minnesota.

These he was primarily instrumental in developing, including the mines, the railroads, and the great fleet of ore-bearing vessels, which were later turned over to the United States Steel Corporation.

His death occurred in his seventy-sixth year, while he was visiting a daughter in Phoenix, Arizona.

Achievements

• Secretary Gates secured for it the indorsement of the Education Society; gave the matter such publicity as to reveal that the denomination throughout the land was favorable; arranged for a conference of leading Baptist educators and laymen of wealth and influence who formulated a clear-cut plan for the institution which won Rockefeller’s approval; and was instrumental in raising the million dollars, of which Rockefeller gave $600, 000, which insured the establishment of the University. It was in the field of education and philanthropy, that Gates did his greatest work. He continued active in behalf of the University of Chicago, serving for many years as a trustee; but contributed in a much broader way to the educational upbuilding of the country through the General Education Board, the first of the Rockefeller foundations, set up without restriction as to race or creed for the purpose of supporting schools and colleges throughout the United States. Of this, he was long the president, and almost to the end of his life, a trustee. It was under his leadership that the Board embarked upon the tasks of aiding the higher educational institutions in building up endowment funds, and of assisting in the intensive development of a small number of leading medical schools. The large number of appeals for aid for a variety of causes which came into Rockefeller’s office from near and far, Gates studied, analyzed, and classified, and it was he who developed the principles and policies which led to the establishment of the Rockefeller Foundation, chartered to advance the well-being of mankind throughout the world. Thus through a happy conjunction with the philanthropic purposes and large vision of Rockefeller, he was able to create in rapid succession a group of institutions all directed to the common end of increasing knowledge and promoting happiness.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Country School of To-morrow

    (From inside the book: Is there aught of remedy for this n...)

  • The Country School Of To-morrow, Issues 1-10

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • The truth about Mr. Rockefeller and the Merritts ca. 1897

    (Originally published in ca. 1897. This volume from the Co...)

  • Our American ancestry

Views

Believing that the study of the causes and prevention of disease offers the greatest field of service to mankind, Gates conceived the idea of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. The child of his own brain, it became the interest nearest his heart.

Personality

In all his business relations, Gates was governed by the same high principles of justice, fair dealing, and economic efficiency which guided his private life.

He was a vivid, vigorous personality, an innovator by temperament, zealous and even insistent in expressing his convictions and urging the principles in which he believed, but cooperative in action and kind and sympathetic in his personal relations.

Connections

On June 28, 1882, Gates married Lucia F. Perkins of Rochester, New York, who died the following year; and on March 3, 1886, he married Emma Lucile Cahoon of Racine, Wisconsin. He had a daughter.

Father:

Granville “Gerry” Gates

17 August 1829 - 20 November 1906

Mother:

Sarah Jane Bowers Gates

19 September 1830 - 23 October 1904

Brother:

Frank Gates

28 June 1851 - 24 January 1884

Wife:

Lucia Fowler Perkins Gates

Died on 31 October 1883.

Wife:

Emma Lucile Cahoon Gates

25 April 1855 - 1934

Daughter:

Lucia Louise Gates Hooper

12 November 1893 - 1967

Daughter:

Grace Lucile Gates Mitchell

10 July 1895 - 10 May 1981

Daughter:

Alice Florence Gates Pudney

20 October 1891 - 1974

Son:

Franklin Herbert “Frank” Gates

13 July 1888 - 6 November 1945

Son:

Russell Cahoon “Rud” Gates

15 June 1890 - 11 February 1964

Son:

Dr Frederick Lamont Gates

17 December 1886 - 17 June 1933

Son:

Percival Taylor “Percy” Gates, Sr

3 January 1897 - 1 October 1978

References

• A Service in Memory of Frederick Taylor Gates