Thomas Sovereign Gates was an American investment banker and educator.
Background
Gates was born on March 21, 1873 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the younger of two sons of Jabez Gates and Isabel (Sovereign) Gates. Both parents were natives of Germantown; the father, an established merchant, later became president of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Germantown.
Education
Gates attended Germantown Academy, spent two years at Haverford College, and then entered the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the Wharton School of Finance in 1893 with the Ph. B. degree. He next enrolled in the university's law school, working part-time (1893-1894) in the law office of Sen. George Wharton Pepper. He graduated LL. B. in 1896.
Career
After graduating Gates practiced law in the office of John G. Johnson, at the same time taking graduate evening courses in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania for which he ultimately (1946) received the Ph. D. degree. In 1906 Gates joined the Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities as trust officer to advise in the settlement of estates. He rose to vice-president, but resigned in 1912 to become president of the Philadelphia Trust Company. Since trust companies often provided short-term loans to investment bankers, Gates soon came to the attention of Drexel and Company, the Philadelphia branch of the banking house of J. P. Morgan. Gates became a Drexel partner in 1918, and three years later joined J. P. Morgan and Company of New York, as a partner. Gates entered investment banking as the field was undergoing rapid expansion both at home and abroad. During the 1920's the Drexel firm was primarily a bond wholesaler, with a volume that ranked it among the top ten investment houses. As a resident partner in Philadelphia, Gates promoted bonds and advised businesses, particularly railroads, on reorganization. He also served on the boards of a number of companies identified with the Morgan banking interests, including the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and several Pennsylvania and New Jersey utility companies, commercial banks, and insurance firms. Throughout the 1920's he chaired the Eastern Pennsylvania Group, a regional organization of the Investment Bankers Association. During his banking career Gates had retained his interest in higher education. He became a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania in 1921, and in the mid-1920's he raised $16 million in an endowment fund drive. In 1929 he assumed chairmanship of the executive board of the trustees, which supervised the twelve schools and related activities comprising the university. In 1930, at the age of fifty-seven, he retired from the Drexel and Morgan firms to accept the university's presidency, an office recently separated from that of provost. Serving without salary, Gates set to work to improve the University of Pennsylvania's financial structure, battered by the depression. He reorganized its finances, combining the indebtedness of various schools and consolidating various trust funds. Through rigid economies he balanced the budget and reduced expenditures. His most notable savings came through reorganizing the athletic program. He removed intercollegiate sports from the control of the alumni association and placed them in the hands of a newly created department of physical education, intercollegiate athletics, and student health, thus bringing athletic funds and financial aid to student athletes under the university's direct control. This became known as the Gates Plan and was widely emulated by other colleges. Gates gave greater emphasis to academics by inaugurating the "Cultural Olympics, " an annual series of intellectual and artistic contests among colleges of the middle states. He launched an experimental college at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and provided increased funds for research, scholarships, and libraries. He conducted a new endowment drive in 1937 which raised $12 million. Gates retired as president in 1944, but in the new office of chairman of the university, and later as chairman of the trustees, he remained active in policy making until his death. He was active throughout his career in the civic life of Philadelphia. Gates died in his sleep at the age of seventy-five, probably of a cerebral hemorrhage, while at his summer home in Osterville, Massachussets, on Cape Cod. He was buried in the churchyard of the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Achievements
Religion
A prominent Episcopalian, Gates also served as treasurer of the diocese of Pennsylvania.
Politics
Although a lifelong Republican, Gates advocated United States membership in the League of Nations, the recognition of the Soviet Union, and a lowering of the barriers to international trade.
Membership
Gates headed the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, was president (1945-1948) of the American Philosophical Society, and chaired both local and national community chest drives.
Personality
Tall and spare, with a buoyant personality, Gates lived unassumingly in spite of his wealth.
Connections
Gates married three times: on June 3, 1905, in Fairfield, Connecticut, to Marie Rogers, who died in 1906; on January 6, 1910, to Mary Emma Gibson of Philadelphia, who died in 1925; and on July 18, 1929, to Mrs. Emma Barton (Brewster) Waller, Jr. , a Philadelphia widow. Gates had one child, Thomas Sovereign, by his first marriage, and two children, Jay Gibson and Virginia Ewing, by his second; he also had a stepson, James.