Charles Cassius Gates Jr. (May 27, 1921 – August 28, 2005) was a businessman and philanthropist. His father, Charles Gates Sr., bought Colorado Tire & Leather for $3,500 in 1911. The company was renamed The Gates Rubber Company in 1919. It became world's largest non-tire

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...

manufacturer. Charles Gates Jr. took over in 1961, upon the death of his father. The Gates Corporation continued to grow, diversify, and acquire other companies, including Learjet. By 1996, the privately held Gates Corporation employed over 14,000 people. It was sold to London-based Tomkins plc that year for US$1.1

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English. * 1,000,000,000,000, i. ...

. Charles C. Gates Jr. was trustee emeritus of the

Gates Family Foundation The Gates Family Foundation is one of the largest philanthropic organizations in Colorado, based in Denver. Background Founded in 1946, the Foundation currently has net assets of approximately $500 million. In 2007, the Foundation paid roughly ...

, a large,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

-based

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ...

that has distributed over $147 million in grants over its 60-year history. He also sat on the boards of many other organizations, including the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, home to Gates Planetarium. He attended Graland Country Day School, class of 1934, and endowed the school to create an invention competition called th
Gates Invention and Innovation Competition
His namesake event has been held annually since 2000. Charles' uncle

John Gates John "Johnny" Gates, born Solomon Regenstreif (28 September 1913 – 23 May 1992) was an American Communist business man, best remembered as one of the individuals spearheading a failed attempt at liberalization of the Communist Party USA in ...

invented the V-belt in 1917, a staple component in all modern automotive and industrial applications.

External links

Gates Corporation
home page
Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People

Gates Family Foundation
1921 births 2005 deaths {{Tomkins plc 20th-century American businesspeople