Obituary of Stanley Lincoln Bates

Stanley L. Bates The forever surprising Stanley Lincoln Bates passed away in Rome Hospital on Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, just a few blocks from North Jay Street where he was born on November 18, 1916, the third son of Genevieve and Elmer Orson Bates. He was a man of strong convictions who questioned common opinions and came to his own conclusions. The novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" influenced his early aversion to war. He joined the Navy Sea Bees during World War II and was sent to the South Pacific, serving his country by building rather than fighting. He was an early and active opponent of the Vietnam War, and more recently, the Iraq War. A life long Republican, he voted Democratic for the first time in 2004. Rome residents may have seen his Barack Obama yard sign and Veterans for Obama bumper sticker. On his 21st birthday, during the depths of the Great Depression, he received a letter offering him a job in Washington DC as the result of his high scores on a competitive national exam. In Washington he met and married Pauline Schneider three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. When a daughter asked him why they married, he said, "She was tall, very smart, and could bake a great pie." After the war, the young couple settled in Rome at 735 North Jay Street. Stan designed and built their distinctive aluminum sided home himself. A master sheet metal smith, Stan Bates ran a successful heating and air conditioning business in Rome for over forty years and continued to make service calls for his old customers until recently. He enjoyed dispensing practical advice ranging from "don't monkey with the thermostat" to "stop smoking." He was an early conservationist with a passion for building ponds, planting trees on his acreage in West Branch and Ava, and tending to his large backyard garden. He took special pride in growing melons, strawberries and tomatoes and was a blue ribbon winner of Rome's Garden Club. Stan shot his first deer at age 18, and was a life long sportsman who often communed with nature on Sunday mornings by hunting rabbits and pheasants with one of his dogs, or fishing with his friends. A reader of The Economist and the Wall Street Journal, Stan and his wife were investors who did their own research and picked individual stocks. Recently Stan was prescient about the 2008 fall of the stock market and his portfolio outperformed most hedge funds. Because of their wisdom and thrift the couple has been very generous to their two daughters and grandchildren. In honor of Stan's opinion that "all religions are cults," there will be no religious commemoration of his life. His ashes will be mingled with those of his beloved wife and partner, Pauline, who died in 2002 after sixty years of marriage. His two older brothers, Emerson and Clayton, a Navy pilot who disappeared in action during the first days of World War II, predeceased him. Stanley Bates is survived by his daughters Christine S. Bates of Millerton in Dutchess County, and Connie L. Bates of New York City, his two grandchildren Charlotte Bates Greenough of New York City and Nicholas Bates Greenough of Washington DC, his sister Ellen Schaller and brother Merle Bates, both lifelong residents of Rome. Stanley also is survived by his son-in-law of 33 years, Peter William Greenough, who came to regard him as a father and a legend, and his supportive companion in Rome during his last years, Nita Pileckas. Funeral services will be held in the spring. There are no calling hours. Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Barry Funeral Home, 807 W. Chestnut Street. Please offer online tributes or light a candle at: www.BarryFuneralHome.com