Los Angeles County
Biographies
HOWARD B. GATES
GATES, HOWARD B., Physician and Surgeon, Los Angeles, California, was born at San Jose, California, November 23, 1867. He is the son of Freeman Gates and Adelaide (Rhodes) Gates, born respectively in New Hampshire and New York. He was married to Dr. Amelia Levinson in San Francisco, California, in 1898. Dr. Gates’ father was one of the pioneers of California, arriving in the Golden State in 1850, after a trip by way of Panama. He engaged in mining, but was forced to give up this work on account of poor health. He settled in San Jose in 1852 and organized the first public school system of the city. Later he established a higher place of learning, known as Gates Institute, and there many of California’s leading men received their academic training, among them being Delphin M. Delmas, the noted lawyer; Senator James R. Low, T. S. Montgomery and A. E. Pomeroy, well known in Los Angeles. Among Dr. Gates’ connections on the maternal side if Judge Augustus L. Rhodes, who served sixteen years on the Supreme Bench of California, solving many of the early intricate problems presented to the court, in such a clear, logical manner as to make him permanently revered by the legal profession of the State. Now, at the age of ninety-three years, he is an honored citizen of the community where he lives and his home is the mecca of all distinguished visitors to that section.
Dr. Gates received his early education at his father’s institute and later in the public schools of San Jose. The early death of his father caused Dr. Gates and his two brothers—Carroll and Egbert—to enter into business life, so that the doctor’s road to a professional training, like that of many others who are eventually successful, was filled with obstacles. He finally succeeded in entering the University of California with the class of 1891, graduating with the degree of Ph.B.
Finances were still a serious problem with him, but by obtaining a position as teacher in an evening school he was enabled to take up the study of medicine in Cooper Medical College of San Francisco. There he passed the first two years of his medical course, going to New York City at the end of that period as a student in the New York Homeopathic College and Hospital. He received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1895, and supplemented this course with post-graduate work in special branches of his profession.
Concluding his studies, Dr. Gates returned to the city of his birth and began the practice of his profession among the friends and surroundings of his boyhood. Here is found a history of uninterrupted success and much appreciation from Dr. Gates’ friends. He was elected first Health Officer of Santa Clara County, California, serving two years (1898-1899), which work he carried on in addition to his private practice. For five years he was physician to the Orphans’ Home, a service in which he took a great deal of interest and delight.
In 1902 Dr. Gates and his wife, also a physician, spent six months in Chicago and New York studying. They returned to San Jose and in 1905 Dr. Gates was appointed to take charge of the County Hospital. Here, as in his work as Health Officer, pioneer work was necessary, as the Santa Clara County Hospital, like all similar institutions of that date, had not been put on a hospital basis. With the aid of his exceptionally capable wife and a very progressive Board of Supervisors, a thoroughly up-to-date hospital and training school was organized and established, with the result that it is second to none in the State of California at the present time.
From July, 1906, to July, 1908, Dr. Gates and his wife traveled over Europe, studying under the most famous men in the Universities of Vienna and Berlin, and enjoying at the same time close contact with the peoples of these countries. Upon the conclusion of their two-year stay they returned to San Jose, where he again took up his practice and the hospital work, to which both were devoted. But during his absence his mother and brothers had definitely located in Los Angeles, where the eldest brother, Carroll, had long been one of the leading citizens and anxious to have the family around him to enjoy the never-ending delights of the Southland. So, in order that they might all be together, Dr. Gates and his wife moved to Los Angeles in November, 1909, where he took up practice.
Dr. Gates is a member of various medical societies and of several clubs, including the California, University and Los Angeles Country Clubs and Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Transcribed 3-12-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 213,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES