FREDERICK T. GATES
Name: Frederick Taylor Gates
Born: 1853
Died: 1929
Frederick Taylor Gates (1853 - 1929) was an American Baptist clergyman, educator,
and the principal business and philanthropic advisor to the major oil
industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller (Senior), from 1891 to 1923.
The son of a Baptist minister, he was born at Maine, Broome County, New York,
graduated from the University of Rochester in 1877, and from the Rochester
Theological Seminary in 1880. From 1880 to 1888 he served as pastor of the
Central Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He left the ministry and was appointed the secretary of the newly formed
American Baptist Education Society, where he championed a Baptist university in
Chicago to fill a void that existed in Baptist education. On January 21, 1889 he
met the lifetime Baptist Rockefeller Senior. He proved to be central to the
suggestion and subsequent design of the funding plans for the creation by Senior
of the the Baptist University of Chicago; he subsequently served for many years
as a trustee on its board.
Gates then became Rockefeller's key philanthropic and business adviser, working
in the newly established family office in Standard Oil headquarters at 26
Broadway, where he oversaw Rockefeller's investments in a series of investments
in many companies, but not in his personal stock in the Standard Oil Trust.
From 1892 onwards, faced with his ever expanding investments and real estate
holdings, Senior crucially recognized the need for professional advice and so he
formed a four-member committee, later including his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,
to manage his money, and nominated Gates as its head and as his senior business
adviser. In this capacity Gates steered Rockefeller money predominantly to
syndicates arranged by the investment house of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and, to a
lesser extent, the house of J. P. Morgan.
Gates served on the boards of many companies in which Rockefeller had a majority
shareholding; Rockefeller at that time held a securities portfolio of
unprecedented size for a private individual. Although Gates is recognized today
as a philanthropic advisor, in fact Rockefeller himself regarded him as the
greatest businessman he had encountered in his life, skipping such prominent
figures of the time as Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie.
When he ceased being a business advisor to Rockefeller in 1912, he continued to
advise him and his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on philanthropic matters, at
the same time serving on many corporate boards. He also served as president of
the General Education Board, which was subsequently merged into other
Rockefeller family institutions.
Gates also designed the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now
Rockefeller University), established in 1901, of which he was board president.
He, along with Rockefeller and his son, was also crucial in the design of the
prominent and influential Rockefeller Foundation, becoming a trustee upon its
creation in 1913.
Gates' intimacy with John D. Rockefeller and his role in advancing the
Rockefeller interests and philosophy was described by Gerard Colby and Charlotte
Dennett in their book "Thy Will Be Done The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson
Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil". Some question whether Robert M.
Gates, currently serving as George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, is a
descendant of Frederick T. Gates.
Name: Frederick Taylor Gates
Born: 1853
Died: 1929
Frederick Taylor Gates (1853 - 1929) was an American Baptist clergyman, educator,
and the principal business and philanthropic advisor to the major oil
industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller (Senior), from 1891 to 1923.
The son of a Baptist minister, he was born at Maine, Broome County, New York,
graduated from the University of Rochester in 1877, and from the Rochester
Theological Seminary in 1880. From 1880 to 1888 he served as pastor of the
Central Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He left the ministry and was appointed the secretary of the newly formed
American Baptist Education Society, where he championed a Baptist university in
Chicago to fill a void that existed in Baptist education. On January 21, 1889 he
met the lifetime Baptist Rockefeller Senior. He proved to be central to the
suggestion and subsequent design of the funding plans for the creation by Senior
of the the Baptist University of Chicago; he subsequently served for many years
as a trustee on its board.
Gates then became Rockefeller's key philanthropic and business adviser, working
in the newly established family office in Standard Oil headquarters at 26
Broadway, where he oversaw Rockefeller's investments in a series of investments
in many companies, but not in his personal stock in the Standard Oil Trust.
From 1892 onwards, faced with his ever expanding investments and real estate
holdings, Senior crucially recognized the need for professional advice and so he
formed a four-member committee, later including his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,
to manage his money, and nominated Gates as its head and as his senior business
adviser. In this capacity Gates steered Rockefeller money predominantly to
syndicates arranged by the investment house of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and, to a
lesser extent, the house of J. P. Morgan.
Gates served on the boards of many companies in which Rockefeller had a majority
shareholding; Rockefeller at that time held a securities portfolio of
unprecedented size for a private individual. Although Gates is recognized today
as a philanthropic advisor, in fact Rockefeller himself regarded him as the
greatest businessman he had encountered in his life, skipping such prominent
figures of the time as Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie.
When he ceased being a business advisor to Rockefeller in 1912, he continued to
advise him and his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on philanthropic matters, at
the same time serving on many corporate boards. He also served as president of
the General Education Board, which was subsequently merged into other
Rockefeller family institutions.
Gates also designed the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now
Rockefeller University), established in 1901, of which he was board president.
He, along with Rockefeller and his son, was also crucial in the design of the
prominent and influential Rockefeller Foundation, becoming a trustee upon its
creation in 1913.
Gates' intimacy with John D. Rockefeller and his role in advancing the
Rockefeller interests and philosophy was described by Gerard Colby and Charlotte
Dennett in their book "Thy Will Be Done The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson
Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil". Some question whether Robert M.
Gates, currently serving as George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, is a
descendant of Frederick T. Gates.