Reginald Ruggles Gates was born in Middleton, Nova Scotia, in 1882. The son of Andreas Bohaker Gates and Elizabeth Ruggles. He had a twin sister and another sister, several years his junior. His father was the owner-operator of C. Gates, Son & Co. (established ca. 1840), creators, manufacturers and distributors of Gates’ “Life of Man Bitters” and “Gates Invigorating Syrup”. Gates’ was educated at home and in a one room school from 1890 to 1896. He attended Middleton High School 1896-1898 and in 1899 entered Mount Allison University, graduating in 1903 with BA and MA degrees. He received a BSc from McGill University in 1906 and PhD from the University of Chicago in 1908. In 1914, at the beginning of WWI, Dr. Gates joined the Artists’ Rifles and later volunteered as an Instructor in aerial gunnery for the Royal Air Force. He became a corporal with this unit. Throughout his career as a biologist and eugenicist, Dr. Gates wrote prolifically and was a leading exponent of the application of genetics to anthropology. From the early 1920s to the year of his death, he made many original and controversial contributions to the genetical study of race crossing. He served as lecturer, researcher and Professor at the Imperial College of Science, London; St. Thomas’ Hospital, London; University of California; University of London; Harvard University and Oxford University. He received an honourary degree from Mount Allison University in 1927 and served as a member of the Board of Regents, 1951 and 1958.

Dr. Gates was married three times, and divorced twice. In 1911 he married Dr. Marie Stopes, an supporter of birth control. In May of 1929, he wed Jane Williams. On 1 January 1955, he married Laura Nowotny Greer, widow of Samuel Rufus Greer of Tyler, Texas. She acted as his assistant in the latter years of his life and traveled extensively with him, recording their travels and his research through photoprints and slides. Dr. Gates died in London, England on 12 August 1962.

Laura Ruggles Gates was born Laura Nowotny in Tyler, Texas, 12 January 1900. Her parents were Albert Nowotny and Wilhelmia Spaugenberg Nowotny (1877-1943). Mrs. Gates attended Northwestern University in Chicago and carried out graduate work in social studies. After her first husband, Samuel Rufus Greer, a banking official from Tyler, died, she married Reginald Ruggles Gates, 1 January 1955.

Following Gates' death she was a tireless advocate of his work and spent much of her time promoting memorials of his career, in particular the Ruggles Gates Awards and the Ruggles Gates Chair in Biology at Mount Allison University. An endowment fund from his estate supported the teaching and administrative position of Department Head. She died in Texas, 4 April 1990.