Richard M. Gates

Family, relatives and friends are mourning the loss of Richard M. Gates, age 81 years, of Stockton, NJ. Richard died Tuesday, November 29, 2016, at the Hunterdon Medical Center, Raritan Township, NJ.

Born in Syracuse, NY, on January 4, 1935, Richard was the only child of the marriage of the late Charles Wayne Gates and Margaret Ludwig Gates. He was raised by his mother and her extended family in Cortland, NY, and lived most of his adult life in Ewing Township, NJ.

A graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Furniture Design, he served his country in the United States Army until his honorable discharge in 1960. Richard married his childhood sweetheart, Jean Bernard, on December 28, 1957, and moved to her family’s home in Ewing Township, NJ after his discharge from the service. He worked for the State of New Jersey Department of Education as an Architect/Inspector for nearly three decades.

An avid outdoorsman, Richard loved to hunt and fish in the Adirondack Mountains, where his family has enjoyed and maintained a hunting camp for over a century. He was a master craftsman, an expert mechanic, and an artisan carpenter whose furniture creations have been praised as works of art. He loved nothing more than to laugh over a good story or to recount the plots of his favorite westerns.

He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather to his wife of almost fifty-nine years, Jean Gates, and to his six children and two grandchildren. He is survived by all of them: his loving wife ; his son Mark and Mark’s wife Kimberly Gates, of Kintnersville, PA; his daughter Beth Gates and her husband, John Farmer, of Raritan Township, NJ; his sons Gary Gates of Ewing, NJ, Matthew Gates of Madison, NY, and John Gates of Ewing, NJ; and his son Stephen and Stephen’s wife, Melanie Gates, of Hamilton, NJ and Stephen and Melanie’s two children, Jacob and Sarah Gates, of Hamilton, NJ. They, and his many friends and relatives in New Jersey and New York, will miss him forever.

A Memorial Service will be held privately under the direction of the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ. For further information or to leave an online condolence, please visit www.holcombefisher.com. A more public celebration of Richard’s life will be held at a date and location to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions in Richard’s name be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758516, Topeka, Kansas 66675-8516.