The BEST WE CAN DO

HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF JOHN S. GATES CDEP 1975

If you walk almost anywhere on the Thacher campus today, you cannot miss the impact of alumnus, past parent, and former Trustee John Gates’s vision, stewardship, and magnanimous generosity. His legacy, however, goes far beyond the physical buildings that he helped make possible.

Thacher graduate in the Class of 1975, John Gates never really said goodbye to Casa de Piedra. He went on to college in Colorado and later founded Gates Architecture in Aspen, but always remained connected to the people and place that he held so dear. It was when John’s children Emmo and Jesse became Toads themselves, in the classes of 2008 and 2012 respectively, that John discovered a new way to be involved as a parent and volunteer, and in 2008, joined the Board of Trustees, serving on the Buildings and Grounds, Development, Architectural Review, and Executive Committees during his impactful nine-year tenure.

John’s passion for innovation, creativity, and teamwork was fostered by his father Charles who built his family’s company, the Gates Rubber Company, into a worldwide leader for industry and technology. Charles also inspired John to give back, in part through his vision for the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine, a world-class research center dedicated to finding cures for age-related macular degeneration that John and his sister Diane led.

Among John’s many contributions to Thacher is the realization of GATES (Gates Art, Technology, Engineering, and Science), the newest and most dynamic building on campus. As a self-identified nontraditional learner, John valued new approaches to teaching and learning and recognized that those approaches also called for new kinds of spaces. Taking inspiration from Stanford’s Design School and engaging the input of thought leaders such as Harvard’s Frank Locker, John helped Thacher leaders and Trustees fund and envision a new academic building to support active learning across the disciplines that would also facilitate creativity and experimentation and offer the versatility to accommodate changing needs in the future.

GATES was completed in 2021, and has transformed teaching and learning at Thacher. The 25,000 square-foot facility includes a lecture hall, fabrication garage, tech shop, photo lab, 3D art and ceramics studios, in addition to classroom and meeting space with incredible vistas. On a given day in GATES you will find students building robots and go-karts, solving multivariable calculus equations, creating visual storyboards on our digital displays, painting, drawing and creating with clay, 3D printers, wood, and laser cutters.

“GATES embodies many of our academic program’s core principles and values: collaboration, creativity, and interdisciplinary thinking, problem solving and learning by doing,” said Dr. Tracy Miller, assistant head of school and director of studies. “It’s a space where learning is visible, vibrant, and full of joy, purpose, wonder, and discovery.”

John’s indelible imprint on Thacher is undeniable, but goes far beyond the physical spaces he touched.

“John was a mountain of a man,” said Jeff Berndt, director of institutional advancement. “His footprint on our campus is almost as big as his heart—you can see his legacy in almost every area of the School. The School's progress and improvements are completely correlated to his vision, passion, the strength of his relationships, his appreciation for the aesthetic, and his magnanimous generosity.”

At an event to celebrate the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine, John echoed one of his father’s favorite sayings, “You only really need three things in life to be happy—someone to love; something productive to do; and something to look forward to.” We will be forever grateful for John Gates’s love of Thacher and the many meaningful ways he demonstrated that throughout his remarkable life.