Jonathan Robert Yates

Jonathan Robert “Rowdy” Yates of Sudbury, a lifelong Boston sports fan, shrewdly timed a fall and hospitalization so that he would miss much of the 2023 Patriots season. He was working toward a remarkable recovery when he passed away on April 21, at age 75. Those who knew him will miss his warm heart, unconditional love, ribald sense of humor, delicious home cooking, special goodnight tucks, and secret handshakes.

The middle of three children born to Lt. Col. Jules David Yates and Lt. Natalie (Weisberg) Yates, Jon was an international “army brat” until his family settled in Brookline when he was in junior high. Dubbed “Rowdy” by his classmates, after Clint Eastwood’s character Rowdy Yates in the popular TV series Rawhide, the nickname was well-suited and stuck.

At Brookline High School and as an undergraduate at Brandeis University, Jon excelled in theater and tennis, earning starring roles in campus productions and competing in varsity matches. During his junior year of college, he visited the dorm room of classmate Anne Lowenstein Wallace, shared a smoke, and—as Jon often joked—never left. They married shortly after graduating in 1970, and settled in Oahu, Hawaii. Jon helped fund their year-long honeymoon by selling insurance and hustling at the local pool hall.

With both of their families in Massachusetts, Jon and Anne returned to the Bay State, where Jon earned his M.F.A. in Directing from Brandeis in 1975. Considered a young talent, Jon began his career as a theater producer and director at the Charles Playhouse in Boston. His productions starred Al Pacino, Ben Gazzara, Clarence Williams, and other notable actors; but he was most proud of directing and co-producing the play Lenny, about Lenny Bruce, in Boston and London’s West End. In Boston, Lenny was a huge hit, challenging the limits of free speech. But in staid London, audiences didn’t take to Lenny’s “foul mouth.” Deciding that he needed some business acumen to survive in theater, Jon went back to school and received an M.B.A. from MIT’s Sloan Fellows program. After Sloan, Jon had a second career in sales and marketing, with a side-trip back to theater as the Managing Director of Sudbury’s Chiswick Park Theatre in the nineties.

Despite his multiple professional degrees, Jon’s true passions in life were fishing, family, and friends, potentially in that order. After settling in Sudbury, Jon bought a series of freshwater boats, each humorously nicknamed “Fast Anne,” and more fishing tackle than any sane person should own. On local waterways like the Sudbury River, Lake Boon, and Nonesuch Pond, he caught bass, carp, and the occasional tree branch, often bringing along his children or his friends’ kids, who delighted in these adventures. Jon and his fishing “girlfriend,” Anne’s cousin Arnie, assiduously competed for fishing records, with Jon racking up 13 International Game Fish Association World Records, as well as numerous Massachusetts, New York, and Maine state records. In his prime fishing days, he held records for the heaviest carp, bluefish, and striped bass caught on various test line. An engaged and ever-present father, Jon guided each of his children to their own IGFA World Records. He also taught them to cook, play tennis, love classic rock, and pull the occasional finger.

Over the years, Jon repeatedly defied the odds. Despite being dyslexic before the condition was well understood, he skipped second grade and became a lifelong, book-a-day reader. As an adult, Jon faced a series of medical issues, but each time recovered, often to the astonishment of his doctors. Jon was a fighter and an optimist who incorporated Eastern medicine and tai chi into his lifestyle. After his recent fall, he was primarily bedridden, but was working to walk again. He wanted to show his grandchildren that with effort, they could overcome any obstacle.

Jon will be deeply missed by his wife of 53 years, Anne Yates (Sudbury); daughter and son-in-law Alexandra Yates and David Silverman (Concord); son and daughter-in-law Adam and Heather Yates (Wayland); baby sister Jennifer Levy-Peck (Salem, OR); grandchildren Jonathan, Leo, Mary, and Eve; sisters-in-law Laura Wallace and Libby Wallace; brother-in-law Benjamin Wallace; and countless other family members and friends. He was predeceased by his parents; older sister Sandy Mathieson; and childhood friend Douglas Granville, with whom we expect he is playing backgammon and cheering on the Celtics.

Jon’s loved ones will gather this summer in a private ceremony at their home on Cape Cod, where Jon fished and vacationed. Donations in his memory can be made to the Sudbury Valley Trustees (www.svtweb.org), and remembrances can be shared on the memorial webpage hosted by Duckett Funeral Home.