William A. Tates

William Anthony (Tony) Tates was born June 20,1959 in Baltimore, MD to Ernestine (Johnson) Tates and the late Norman William Tates. He was the oldest of two children that blessed the Tates family. He was called to rest on September 2, 2014. Tony was educated in the Baltimore City Public School System. Like his father, he was a proud graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Tony went on to complete his Bachelor’s of Art degree at University of Maryland at Baltimore County in Visual Arts. When he was an intern at WJZ, he met and was impressed by Oprah Winfrey and her ambition in her early years. He continued his professional education at George Washington University, receiving certifications in Project Management. Tony’s professional pursuits lead him into the areas of Banking, and later Systems Management. Through hard work, diligence and the ability to develop and lead teams he became the youngest as well as one of the first African American Assistant Vice Presidents at Household Bank in the early 90’s,. His next career move was to a Project Manager position at the national office of the American Red Cross. He was one of their special staff assigned to the 911 site in NYC. Over the next eleven years, Tony accepted higher levels of responsibility in new positions, departing as the Director of IT in Financial Operations. His last position was as Director of Business Intelligence Systems at Conservation International Washington, D.C. headquarters. Tony had interests that covered many areas. For example he loved to travel. There were locations that he returned to on a regular basis- Rehoboth beach every Labor Day week, Key West with dear friends in the winter and Martha’s Vineyard with his roommate were at the top of the lists. But there were also Caribbean island jaunts with his aunt and cousins, trekking through Germany, Holland and England with friends and exploring new and old sites in New York City. Tony also had a passion for the arts. Utilizing his visual art skills, he took beautiful photographs of friends, events and especially on his holidays. His ticket stub and music collection includes performers for nearly every type of music possible. In his early adult years, Tony was famous for creating house music as the ‘master mixer”. Tony was always curious, an avid learner who made learning a lifetime love. Tony loved his family. He was always thoughtful and enjoyed spending time with them. He was devoted to his sister Ronnie. The two often planned elaborate Christmas gifts for their mom, grandparents and others and their Mother’s Day events were always full of delicious food and fun. Tony was devastated when Ronnie passed away-. a part of him was missing. Now we will miss Tony too. We will miss his dependability, thoughtfulness, kindness , generosity and warm spirit. Anthony means “precious one”…. He was indeed a precious gift to us. We will miss his smile, the sound of his laugh , those eyes that twinkled when he was really having a good time and all of the expressions of his love to us. Tony was preceded in death by his father, William Norman Tates and his sister, Veronica Eillen Tates Tony is survived by: his mother, Ernestine Tates; his grandparents, Lucille and Calvin Tyler; his aunts, Carolyn Byrd and Janet Toler; close friend, Cheryl Curtis, and a host of cousins and friends.

Tributes

William A. Tates

June 20, 1959 - September 2, 2014