Gerald Eugene Bates

A Celebration of Life for Gerald Eugene Bates was held on October 19, 2024, at Central Baptist Church, Weatherford, Texas. Gerald, age 89, passed from this life on October 11, 2024, at his home in Decatur, Texas, surrounded by his wife and daughters.
He was born in Roosevelt, September 21, 1935, to Audlia and Jessie Dunegan Bates. He attended first grade in Roosevelt and completed grades 2 through 12 in Snyder, graduating with the class of 1953. He was raised on a farm east of Snyder. In high school he was a member of the FFA and played trombone in the school band. Upon high school graduation, he attended Cameron Jr. College (later changed to Cameron University) in Lawton. 
Gerald’s maternal grandfather, Willie Dunegan, is ½ Choctaw and Gerald learned he could become a member in the Choctaw Nation Tribe through blood degree. He is now a certified Native American of the Choctaw Nation Tribe. All of his daughters and grandchildren are also certified as Native American of the Choctaw Nation Tribe; each proudly carrying their Certificate of Degree (CDIB) of Indian Blood. 
Gerald and Bobbie Sue Hardin were united in marriage June 10, 1955, at Prairie View Baptist Church east of Snyder, a small country church. They were together for 69 plus years. They were blessed with a three-day honeymoon before preparing to leave on wheat harvest. Gerald and his Dad contracted wheat combining from Snyder all the way to Bismark, North Dakota. When the wheat harvest was over, the family returned to Snyder to get ready for the maize and corn harvest in west Texas. It was long on hours and short on pay. 
In February 1956, Gerald and Bobbie left the farm and moved to Trona California where he was employed at the American Potash and Chemical Corporation as a lab technician. Trona is a part of the Mojave Dessert and the only green vegetation was salt cedars and yucca plants. In May 1959, he had soil under his finger nails and the call to return to the sod was strong. They moved back to the farm east of Snyder. During the winter months, Gerald took jobs in Amarillo and Borger, Texas, to supplement the income. Realizing that his growing family required greater financial assistance, he relocated to Lawton for better job opportunities. While on a brief vacation to Houston, Texas, he learned of a vacancy at a commercial air conditioning manufacturing plant which offered greater financial opportunities and less hours. He applied and was hired. He stayed in Houston while the girls and wife returned to Lawton so the girls could finish the school year and sell the house, eventually settling in Pasadena, Texas. 
During his employment at the air conditioning company Gerald had a tragic accident. The handle on a bucket of hot tar broke and splattered the hot liquid on the back of his left hand, his chest and spots on his face almost losing an eye. He damaged the palm of his right hand when he slapped it on the hot tar coating the back of his left hand. Due to the injuries to his hands which required two skin grafts, he was totally incapacitated for 14 months. His daughters were his little nurses feeding him, buttoning his shirts, fetching him water and anything else he needed help with. When he was permitted limited use of his hands, he enrolled in a vocational school and studied mechanical design. Upon completion of this education, he terminated his position with the air conditioning plant and was employed by Lockheed, Inc. a contractor for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Johnson Space Center in Houston as a mechanical design intern. 
Through job opportunities offering advancement and better pay, he was employed by various other aerospace engineering contractors associated with NASA. During the early days of the Apollo Lunar Landing Program, he was employed by Dyna-Lectron, Inc. as a design draftsman. His greatest achievement was the design of the large concave disks known as the foot pads for the lunar landing module. All that farming experience didn’t fully go to waste as he used the farming plow known as a disc for the basic design for the foot pads. Those foot pads were the second man-made thing to touch the surface of the moon when Apollo 11 touched down. The first was the landing probe. Both of these still sit on the moon. 
When the Apollo program phased out, he was forced to seek other employment. Gerald submitted his resume to General Dynamics (later sold and renamed Lockheed Martin) in Fort Worth, Texas, and was hired as a mechanical design engineer. In 1973, events repeated the process of him relocating to Fort Worth and the family staying in Pasadena finalizing the school year and selling the house. They settled in Hurst, Texas, where they lived until the girls finished high school, either got married and/or finished college. 
While employed at Lockheed in Fort Worth, his most noteworthy achievement was the design of a mobile all-terrain, multi-directional radar unit for the military. The vehicle already existed, but needed modification. The vehicle was a tank and the gun mounted on its turret had to be removed. The newly designed radar unit was mounted in its place. The cab of the tank then had to be modified to remove all the loading and firing mechanism associated with the gun and replaced with the high technology needed to operate the radar unit. This mobile radar unit was highly successful during Desert Storm and though upgraded, it is still in use today. 
While employed at Lockheed, he was recognized for his design ingenuity through promotions and superior performance awards. During his twenty-five years with Lockheed, he designed and supervised the construction of high-tech ground testing stations for the B-24, B-32, B-36, B-58, F-111, and F-16 aircraft. 
He only had a high school education, one year of college and short term vocational training, but when he retired from Lockheed in January 1999, he held the position of Engineer Specialist, a position that required a bachelor’s degree or higher with several years experience. 
Every two years Snyder High School held a reunion and the highlight of that was the recognition of an outstanding alumnus. On April 14, 2001, at the 16th Bi-Annual Reunion this award was presented to Gerald. He was recognized for his accomplishments while employed at NASA-Houston and Lockheed-Fort Worth. 
With the daughters out of the house, Gerald missed the country living so he bought some acreage in rural Weatherford, Texas. The only thing that existed on that 31 acres was cross fencing and copper head snakes. During the removal of some cross fencing from a very rocky place and a nest for copper heads, Gerald was operating a chain saw to cut through some scrub brush and tree limbs. He tied a chain around a fairly large limb and hooked the other end to the back of the pickup. His wife was given the job of using the pickup to pull the tree limb free. After a couple tries, he told her to give it some gas. He was standing up in the back of the pickup holding a running chain saw when she gave it some gas. He lost his balance and started rolling out the back of the bed. Bobbie slammed on the brakes and he started rolling back the other way into the back of the cab. In her haste to check on him, she forgot to put pickup in park. It started rolling down hill, so she jumped back in and slammed on the brakes. Again, causing Gerald to roll into the back of the cab. After getting control of the pickup, she asked him if he was ok, and he said, “Yes, I didn’t think dead people felt pain.” He had a few head of cattle and built a small shop to support his wood-working hobby. He became involved with the Central Community Volunteer Fire Department and his church. In April 1989, the acreage was sold and he relocated to Decatur, Texas to be closer to the daughters. 
Gerald achieved much in his life, but his greatest legacy is his girls. He was not only career oriented, but was very much involved in his daughters’ lives. They are the epitome of “Daddy’s girls.” They were involved in Girl Scouts, school band, different school clubs and multiple other school activities. During one year he was even the Girl Scout Cookie Chairman for four different Troops. While living in Pasadena, Texas, he was a member of the local Junior Chamber of Commerce organization and served as co-chairman for the Punt, Pass and Kick program. 
He had a strong love for the Lord. Gerald accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior at age 8 and was baptized in 1943. He rededicated his life and received spiritual baptism October, 1989, at Rolling Hills Baptist Church Weatherford, Texas. He united with Central Baptist Church by statement of faith on December 12, 1991. He was ordained as a deacon August 23, 1998. He taught Sunday School, served on various committees, and was Deacon Chairman and Educational Director for a number of years. On occasion when the church was without a pastor, he led the worship services, but he drew a line at leading music. He was very instrumental in the design and construction of the new sanctuary. His close working relationship with other church members afforded the completion of the building ahead of schedule and when the building was dedicated, it was debt free. 
He was an active supporter of the Central Community Volunteer Fire Department. He was not a fire fighter, but he served as chaplain for a number of years and served on the Board of Trustees. He was instrumental in establishing the Emergency Services Department #8 whereby the fire department received funding through a small increase in property tax. During his tenure with the fire department, it progressed from four old junk and well-used fire trucks which were housed in a 30 ft. x 40 ft. metal building situated on 1/4 acre to new fire trucks and a tanker housed in an 80 ft. x 100 ft. building situated on 6 acres. The Fire Department presented him with the Humanitarian Award in 1998 for his involvement in Community Affairs. 
After retirement, he and Bobbie purchased an RV and did quite a bit of recreational traveling. He loved hooking up to the truck and heading down the open highway. They visited all 50 states, Nova Scotia, and China. 
As a volunteer with the American Red Cross he is a certified disaster responder in the areas of mobile and stationary feeding, family services, victim sheltering, and logistics. He was deployed to disaster sites such as hurricanes, tornados, floods, wildland and forest fires, local residential fires, and airplane crashes, etc. He was also assigned duty for the 9/11 disaster at Ground Zero in New York City. Gerald worked security checking ID badges for site admittance and was later reassigned to mobile feeding for the other volunteers who were actually working rescue and later recovery. Other deployments included hurricane disasters along the gulf coast from Texas to Florida as well as the wildland and forest fires in California, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas. 
Left to cherish his memory are his wife of 69 years, Bobbie; one sister Shirley Montgomery of Amarillo, Texas and one brother Billy Bates and wife Bernice of Hereford, Texas. Also, his daughters and special sons: Karletta and Charles Pruszynski, McKinney, Texas; Darla and Steve Johns, Longmont, Colorado; Rhonna and Rick Smith, Arlington, Texas; Sheri and Rick Wagner, Cross Roads, Texas; and Robin and Lawson Smith, Arlington, Texas. His precious seven grandchildren Jennifer and Travis Blume, Arlington, Texas; Dr. Jessica Pruszynski, McKinney, Texas; Jeffrey and Shawna Farrar, Lake Worth, Texas; Rachel and Stephan Troup, Milliken, Colorado; Eric Johns, Renton,Washington; Ryan and Kristy Wagner, Hewitt, Texas; Haylie and Zack Arnegard, Evans, Colorado; great-grandchildren Logan Blume, Emma and Liam Troup, Cohen Arnegard and Devan Wagner and baby sister on the way. Also several cousins, nieces and nephews. 
He was preceded in death by his parents, Audlia and Jessie Dunegan Bates, grandson Paul Pruszynski, father- and mother-in-law Iman and Wilma Hardin, brother-in-law Preston Montgomery; and nephew Brady Young.
Donations may be made to the Paul Pruszynski Memorial Scholarship Fund of the Galactosemic Foundation ( https://galactosemia.org/donate-now ) and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation ( https://secure.qgiv.com/for/pulfibfou/ )