CHARLES C. GATES / 1921-2005

Billionaire inventor
kept ties to Hawaii

Billionaire inventor and businessman Charles C. Gates would tell about his youthful days of tinkering with tools in his home workshop where his father encouraged creativity in his sons.

The former president and chairman of Gates Rubber Co. in Denver had a favorite saying: "What we need in this world is more production and less suction."

Gates shared that view at the February dedication of the Charles and June Gates Creative Learning Center at Punahou School. "He told students to aspire to building things and producing things, and not to live off other people," said Punahou President James Scott.

Gates, 84, a member of the Punahou Class of 1939, died Sunday at his Denver home. He lived in Honolulu for part of each year from his childhood to the present.

In 2004, Forbes magazine listed Gates on its billionaires list. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the Gates Family Foundation, which has benefited recipients including Punahou and Hawaii Preparatory Academy with more than $147 million since its creation in 1946.

He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. Gates joined the family business, which produced rubber products for industrial machinery and other uses. He held numerous patents for his inventions in the field. He became president in 1961 at the death of his father and was credited for transforming the company from a regional manufacturer to one of the largest automotive and industrial belt and hose manufacturing firms, with 14,000 employees and factories in 13 countries.

He expanded into other ventures, including cattle ranches and housing development, and purchased the faltering Learjet Corp., which he turned around into a profitable business. He sold Gates Learjet in 1987 and the Gates Co. in 1996 to the British firm Tompkins PLC. The family interests continued as Cody Co.

"He loved mechanical drawing and shop when he was here, and that is what inspired him" to pursue his career, Scott said. "He was an entrepreneur, an inventor. His commitment was to inspire students to tinker, to be inventive and innovative and find ways to build something to solve a human need." In 2000, Gates funded the Gates Science Workshop, a place for youngsters from kindergarten to 12th grade "to tinker," Scott said.

Gates wanted students "to live life so that they have made a difference and had fun in the process," his assistant, Alice Hyatt, wrote to Punahou after the dedication.

He was a board member or trustee of numerous businesses and community organizations. He was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 1998 and is a nominee to the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

He is survived by son John S. of Aspen, Colo.; daughter Diane G. Wallach of Denver; sisters LeBurta G. Atherton of Honolulu, Charla G. Cannon of Denver and Niecie G. Hopper of Atherton, Calif.; and five grandsons.

Memorial services will be private. The family suggests memorial contributions be made to Punahou School, the Children's Hospital Foundation or Graland Country Day School Foundation in Colorado.