Dr. Richard Doane Bates, Jr. died March 3rd, 2023, at the age of 78, after a long illness. He was born July 24, 1944, to Richard Doane Bates, Sr. and Sarah Newbold Deacon of Elizabeth, New Jersey. He and his siblings, older sister Susannah and younger brothers John and James, grew up near the local Jersey Central railroad line. Richard (Dick) used to enjoy playing improvised games and watching the infancy of television with his brothers. As an avid Mickey Mantle and New York Yankees fan, he considered baseball to be his pastime of choice. Another of Dick’s favorite things to do as a boy was to hunt down and enjoy donuts from the regionally famous Elizabeth “donut bus.” Later in his youth, his parents repurchased for the family the Spray Beach, NJ, shore cottage his great-great aunts had built in the late 1890s—the family had to sell it during World War II. Dick was able to find a donut shop to nearly rival the bus from his childhood mere blocks from the new (old) beach house. His parents retired there, and with their children and grandchildren, enjoyed it for many years.
Dick attended The Pingry School, which his father (and later his brothers) also attended. He began to develop interests in philately and finance. As an alumnus, he kept in touch with his old high school and friends. At Cornell University, where he enrolled in ROTC, Dick eventually settled on a path studying his future specialty—chemistry, with a particular focus on chemical physics. During the summers he worked as a runner at his uncle’s Wall Street brokerage firm, and also worked at a summer colony in Harpswell, ME, with a Pingry classmate. Achievement in Ithaca led to Columbia University, where he completed his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in chemistry. At Columbia he met his future wife, Boston-area native and fellow chemistry graduate student, Ruthann Iovanni. They wed in March 1971.
Following the completion of his Ph.D., Dick began his active military duty by serving as a research chemist at the Army lab at Fort Monmouth, NJ. He and Ruthann lived in Matawan, NJ, ideally located where he could get to base within 30 minutes and she could take the train to her job in Manhattan. As the Vietnam War wound down, Dick was allowed to leave the Army a year early to accept a position in 1973 as Assistant Professor of chemistry at Georgetown University. There he began a long legacy of unshakable dedication and loyalty to his institution, its students, its faculty, and, of course, its department of chemistry (and sciences, writ large). He was promoted to Associate, then Full Professor, and retired as Emeritus; he served as Chair of the department as well as President of the Faculty Senate.
At the university, Dick enjoyed playing soccer, baseball, and squash, but he also rekindled his childhood love of ice hockey by following the new National Hockey League team, the Washington Capitals. His children inherited this love and both eventually played the sport. Dunlea and Spencer’s program in their home county, Montgomery Youth Hockey, benefited greatly from the time Dick volunteered as a dedicated parent and fan, and as league Commissioner. By helping to find funding for new area rinks—and find new “ice time” opportunities—Dick contributed greatly to the expansion of youth hockey programs in the National Capital Beltway region.
Dick also was an avid philatelist, recognized as a leading international expert in the stamps of the Panama Canal Zone. He was an officer of the Canal Zone Study Group, was the Editor of the Canal Zone Philatelist, and won many awards for his exhibits at national stamp shows. These contributions were recognized in his receipt of the Canal Zone Study Group Al Bew Award in 1996, and the Gilbert N. Plass Lifetime Service and Achievement Award in 2023. Dick was also the recipient of the American Philatelic Society Award for Service. In retirement, he volunteered as a guest curator and research associate at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
Among Dick’s non-teaching service contributions to Georgetown University was his involvement working on the sale of the Georgetown University Hospital to MedStar, and helping oversee the development and construction of a new science building—a longtime holy grail for him and many other colleagues. A noted wordsmith—master of well-placed puns, and elicitor of countless groans and eye-rolls—his humor, presence, and joviality would follow him as he entered his later years.
With successful university stints of their own, his children moved on to different pastures, and he and Ruthann traveled the world. From the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, Beijing to Addis Ababa, St. Petersburg to Tahiti, they traveled the world many times by air, sea, and by another of Dick’s particular loves—rail—often with friends and family. In 2014, Dick fulfilled a longtime dream by visiting and sailing through the Panama Canal with Ruthann. He also loved genealogy, and was thrilled to visit Doane Rock in the Cape Cod National Seashore in North Eastham, MA. The 18-foot high glacial erratic boulder is named for his distant ancestor, John Doane, one of the original settlers of Eastham.
After the coronavirus pandemic, as his health began to fail, Dick spent most of his time at home with Ruthann and their disreputable Basset Hound, Henry—the latest in a long line of pets reaching back to the beginning of their marriage. He especially enjoyed discussing fire engines with his treasured grandson, Oliver, and visiting the myriad animals on his daughter’s farm. Dick remained invested in his lifelong pursuits and with interests cultivated later in life, such as gardening and soup-making.
Dick is survived by his wife of 52 years, Ruthann; daughter Dunlea Bates and son-in-law Jeff Beverage of Frederick, MD; son Spencer Bates, daughter-in-law Jaclyn Halpern, and grandson Oliver Rye Bates of Rockville, MD; sister Susannah Ristine of S. Portland, ME; brother John D. Bates and sister-in-law Carol Rhees of Bethesda, MD; brother James D. Bates and sister-in-law Patricia of Wendell, NC; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Dr. Richard Bates—beloved son, husband, father and grandfather, lived a great life and set an exceptional example. He believed in fairness, and never sought attention or personal enrichment; rather, he strived to be an indefatigable, caring, and constructive influence on those around him. Saying he will be missed is accurate, but it does not quite capture the magnitude of his loss.
A memorial service will be held at 2 pm on April 1, 2023, in Dahlgren Chapel, Georgetown University. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a gift in Dick’s honor to Georgetown University at: give.georgetown.edu/RichardBates
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