Frederick T. Gates

Frederick Taylor Gates (1853-1929) was an American clergyman, educator, philanthropist and principal business and philanthropic advisor to billionaire John D. Rockefeller (Senior), from 1891 to 1923.

The son of a Baptist minister, Gates was born in 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 pulpit to become the secretary (chief executive officer) 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 with John D. Rockefeller, a lifelong Baptist. Rockefeller approved Gates' funding plans for the reorganized University of Chicago; Gates served for many years as a trustee on the UC board.

Gates became Rockefeller's key philanthropic and business adviser, working out of Standard Oil Company headquarters at 26 Broadway, New York. Gates oversaw Rockefeller's investments in a series of investments in many companies, but not in his personal stock in Standard Oil.

From 1892 onwards, faced with his ever expanding investments and real estate holdings, Rockefeller 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 made Gates its head and as his senior business adviser. 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

Gates ceased being a business advisor to Rockefeller in 1912, he continued to advise him and his son on philanthropic matters, at the same time serving on many corporate boards. Gates served as president of the General Education Board, which was the leading foundation in the field of education.

Gates designed the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University), established in 1901, of which he was board president. He designed the Rockefeller Foundation, becoming a trustee upon its creation in 1913.

Gates was a Progressive and committed to the Efficiency Movement. He looked for leverage whereby a few millions of dollars would generate significant changes, as in the creation of a new university, the readiction of hookworm because it reduced efficiency, or the revolution in hospitals caused by the Flexner Report.

Further reading

• Chernow, Ron, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., 1998.
• Gates, Frederick Taylor. Chapters in my Life. 1977.
• General Education Board The General Education Board: An Account of Its Activities, 1902-1914 (1915).
• Nevins, Allan, Study in Power: John D. Rockefeller, Industrialist and Philanthropist. 2 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953.
• Starr, Harris Elwood, "Frederick T. Gates" in Dictionary of American Biography, Volume 4 (1931).