Carl Spalding Gates

Last Friday, the 13th no less, Carl Spalding Gates walked his last fairway of life. He was 90 and lived, in his last words, “a great life”. He is survived by his loving wife of 67 years, Carolyn Fay Gates who he met in the halls of Vanderbilt University at a Sigma Chi Fraternity social. He is also survived by his sons David (Kathy) of Ellicott City, MD, Scott (Stephanie) of Chadds Ford, PA and daughter Carolyn Connors (Sean) of Landenberg, PA, also eleven grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. His oldest son Carl S. Gates Jr. (Gretchen) passed away in 2020.

Born the youngest into a family of four brothers Daniel, Ralph Jr. (Buddy), and Larry, Carl’s early years were spent in Nashville, Tennessee competing with his brothers on just about anything. He attended Montgomery Bell Academy. Sports and academics were the competitions of choice in the Gates’ household and Carl excelled at both winning the State basketball title at Montgomery Bell Academy as the starting point guard and attending Vanderbilt University on scholarship. Upon graduation from Vanderbilt with a Chemical Engineering degree, Carl started a long career at DuPont moving to New Brunswick, NJ then onto Fair Haven, NJ in the first of many station wagon stops including Los Altos, Atlanta, Chicago, and finally Wilmington, Delaware. Carl and Fay were a great team. They had to be moving from the Deep South to North Jersey, exit 244 off the Garden State Parkway.

Upon early retirement as the Director of the Riston Electronics Division at DuPont, Carl and Fay were ready to enjoy the fruits of their hard labor in raising four kids and living out of the Ford Country Squire wagon. They bought a house at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale and began “snow-birding” to Arizona in the Winter. This is where he really honed his golf game, padded his handicap, and got his 7^th hole-in-one. They also welcomed the growing brood of grandchildren coming to see them in the desert on spring break. Yearly family vacations to far flung places like Jamacia and Aspen and annual summer stays to Stone Harbor, New Jersey were the happiest of times for Carl. It was all about family. In 1991, Foster Friess asked him to join Friess Associates to, in Carl’s words, “play golf with clients and pick some tech stocks for portfolios.” It’s debatable whether this was a lost Nassau bet at Pine Valley, but it was an offer that Carl could not refuse. He didn’t and thus began a new adventure for many years at Friess Associates and The Brandywine Funds.

Retiring again in 2004 Carl spent his later years caring for his wife Carolyn Fay. He was forever loyal to her and considered this “job” his most rewarding and greatest challenge.

A Memorial Service for Carl will be held on Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 11:00 am at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1502 W. 13^th Street, Wilmington, DE.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network which can be made at www.pancan.org.