William W. Bates, 81
William Warren Bates, who served the East Hampton and Springs Fire Departments for a combined 58 years and founded Bates Electric, a company still going strong after 50 years in business, died at Southampton Hospital on Oct. 12 of congestive heart failure. He was first diagnosed last year.
Born in the Bronx on July 1, 1935, to John H. Bates and the former Mabel Knowles, he attended Our Savior Lutheran School there before graduating from Christopher Columbus High School, where he was on the basketball and swim teams. Swimming came easily to a boy whose summers were spent with his family at Hither Hills in Montauk and at Lazy Point on Napeague.
During one of those summers he met the former Evelyn Saar of East Hampton. The two decided to get married on Oct. 15, 1954, in Bennetsville, S.C., and arrived there just in time to have Hurricane Carol as a wedding guest. They returned to their East Hampton rental after their honeymoon to find Mr. Bates’s draft notice in the mail, and he served for two years in Germany before they were reunited.
Mr. Bates worked for several electrical contractors while the family, now with two young sons and a daughter, moved from rental to rental. In 1965, with Darrell Parsons, he started his own company. Mr. Parsons died suddenly the following year, and Mr. Bates carried on alone.
At about the same time, the Bateses bought a house on Ocean View Avenue in Springs, where they have lived ever since.
Because Springs did not have its own fire department at the time, Mr. Bates joined East Hampton’s, becoming captain of Company 4. Eight years later, when the Springs department opened, he stayed on in East Hampton until he could be replaced as captain, then joined the Springs Fire Department. He was a Mason for 56 years, and a member of the American Legion.
Mr. Bates, who was a pillar of the Springs Presbyterian Church affairs and local youth activities — Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Little League and more — coached the first female competitor in the East Hampton Little League. She was the catcher, and the story received wide coverage in the region.
One year, the Bates Electric men’s baseball team needed a co-sponsor. Young Anthony Iacono was on the team, and the Iacono family agreed to co-sponsor it; it became the Electric Chickens.
He loved working in his yard, his family said, calling it his therapy. He was a woodcarver, too; some of his furniture is still in the family house. He also enjoyed golfing, boating in his Boston Whaler off Barnes Landing, and water-skiing.
His wife and children, Susan Brown, Bruce Bates, and Jim Bates, all live in Springs; his sons now run Bates Electric. He also leaves four granddaughters, one grandson, and six great-grandchildren. Two sisters, Doris Lipfert and Trudy Persina, died before him.
Visiting took place at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Sunday, with burial on Monday at Cedar Lawn Cemetery here.