Donald Alan Bates

He was the beloved husband of Rachel for 48 years and the loving father of Corbin Bates, Trudi (Tina) Bates, and Dawn (Pat) Bates. Don was the dear grandfather of Caitie, Sean and Tessa. He is survived by his mother Beth Bates and was predeceased in death by his father Jim Bates.

During Don’s early childhood he spent a lot of time either up on the farm with his cousins or at his Aunt Lucile’s house during the summer months. He talked a lot about some of the things that he did with them.

Don received a Bachelor of Science in Business from Ferris State College in 1969, with a major in accounting. After graduation he went to work for the Michigan Department of Treasury for 33 years.

He was active in the Boy Scouts when his son Corbin was in the scouts. During those years he had many weeklong camping trips with the boys. When he was driving the boys to the campouts he only had one rule that was to be buckled up and he didn’t care how much noise they made while traveling. One summer he took Corbin, Trudi and Dawn with him to hike the Long Trail in the Green Mountains which is part of the Appalachian Trail that starts in Maine and go down to Georgia. He had hoped to be able to go back at some point to hike more of it.

Don belonged to the Metro-Detroit Unit of the Wally Byam Caravan Club for 20 years. During those years he was active and served as Unit President and Treasurer of Metro Detroit. Don and Rachel attended 5 International Rallies and several Region Rallies besides the unit rallies and luncheon’s. We also participated in 4 caravans. One of them was The Lighthouse Color Caravan which traveled around the lower peninsula of Michigan another was the Ores, Shores, Waters & Lights Caravan which traveled around the upper peninsula, one was a caravan to Bozeman, Montana and the last one was The Great River Road Caravan where we started out at the Head Waters of the Mississippi River and traveled down to West Memphis, Arkansas. This past winter we went down to Disney World and had a great time. But he always enjoyed it when the grandchildren came over to stay with Grandpa and Grandma. He had a lot of friends in the Wally Byam Club and enjoyed getting together with them.

Memorial services for Don will be held on Saturday November 3, 2012 at 11 am at Holy Cross Episcopal Church 40700 West 10 Mile Road, Novi, MI 48375. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the church or to the American Heart Association.