Henry L. Gates Sr.

GATES HENRY LOUIS GATES, SR. (Age 97) Formerly a resident of Cumberland and Piedmont, West Virginia, died peacefully on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2010 in Wayne, New Jersey, at home with his family gathered at his bedside. After living in Lexington, Massachusetts, following the death of his wife, Mr. Gates had resided for the past several years at the home of his older son, Dr. Paul Gates. Henry was born in Patterson's Creek, West Virginia, on June 8, 1913. One of eight children born to Edward St. Lawrence Gates and Helen Gertrude Redman Gates, he was the youngest of seven sons. He was a graduate of Frederick Street High School and in 1998 received an honorary doctorate degree from Seton Hall University. He worked for much of his career at the Westvaco Paper Mill in Luke, Maryland, and at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, in Piedmont, West Virginia. He also served in various positions in Local 676 of the Papermakers and Paperworkers Union. He and his wife, Pauline Augusta Coleman Gates, who died in 1987, made their home in Piedmont, where they raised two sons. Henry served in the United States Army during World War II, rising to the rank of sergeant, and was nearly twenty eight years old when he enlisted in 1941. In recent years, Henry made appearances in the popular PBS television series, "African American Lives" and "Faces of America." As part of the latter program, he had his full genome sequenced, making scientific history by becoming the oldest human being to have had this procedure done and made publicly available for scientific and medical research. Henry is survived by his two devoted sons, Dr. Paul E. Gates, the Chief of Dentistry at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York and his wife, Gemina, Assistant Dean and Director of the Sophie Davis Physician Assistant Program at City College in New York, both of Wayne, New Jersey and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts; 10 grandchildren, including Maude Augusta and Elizabeth Helen Claire Gates, both of Cambridge, Eboni Gates of Harlem, New York, Jennifer Rogers and her husband, Shane of Durham, North Carolina, Aaron Pierce Gates of Wayne, Louis Pena and his wife, Yiwen of Queens, New York, Matthew, Michael, Kristen and Alexander Pena, all of Wayne; as well as three great-grandchildren, Gage Rogers of Durham, NC, Shelby and Sydney Pena, both of Queens, NY. Henry was predeceased by his wife, Pauline, and all seven of his siblings. His funeral was held at Christ's Episcopal Church in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, on December 30, 2010. A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, February 5 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Cumberland. His remains will be interred in Potomac Memorial Gardens in Keyser, West Virginia, next to the remains of his wife, Pauline. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to The Henry and Pauline Coleman Gates Scholarship Fund at the following address: West Virginia University Foundation 1 Waterfront Place, 7th Floor Morgantown, West Virginia 26501Morgantown, West Virginia 26501