Career
Mates ran his fund from an office he dubbed the "kibbutz" and with a young staff he called his "flower children". Mates put most of his fund into a letter stock known as Omega Equities. Mates in determining his funds assets assigned a value to the barely traded Omega of $16 a share, while having purchased the stock at $3.25 a share.
Mates got into trouble over this practice which was routine in the 1960s and not uncommon even today, of accounting for letter stocks at a price different from what was paid for lieutenant
The Mates Investment Fund was ahead of its time in one respect: it ostensibly promoted "Socially Responsible" mutual funds (not investing in armaments, cigarettes, or pollutants), which later was successfully promoted by the Calvert family of mutual funds. Mates was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1954.
According to a New York Times obituary, Mates died in Kansas City on December 25, 1982.
