It’s not uncommon for a local family tree to produce at least one distinguished and notable relative. The Gates family, however, has at least two – with roots that go back to the very genesis of the area itself and educational wings for both of them that began to grow at WVU Potomac State College.
Known to his friends as “Rocky,” Dr. Paul Edward Gates has had career accomplishments in the healthcare field that are equally impressive and impactful to the community. It’s safe to say he has done for the world of orthodontics what his brother has done in the field of genealogy research.
This Dr. Gates is a nationally recognized Black dentist, and oral and maxillofacial surgeon. And yes, he is the brother of Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., the noted Harvard professor, author, and host of the PBS celebrity genealogy television series Finding Your Roots.
Rocky Gates was raised in Piedmont, WV, in a loving and close-knit family. His parents were Henry Louis Gates Sr. and Pauline Coleman Gates. A military veteran, his father held down two jobs – one at the telephone company in Cumberland and the other at the Luke Westvaco Paper Mill.
“Because of the paper mill, very few families in Piedmont lived in poverty,” Gates said. “Our home was safe and secure. My mother’s family was so large that every day involved the nuclear family in addition to the primary household.”
Yet, during the mid-century, segregation continued to be a way of life.
“I attended ‘separate-but-equal’ schools from the first grade through the fifth grade,” he said.
For a time, he was bused from Piedmont into Keyser to attend the “All-Black” school that has now been converted into the Lincoln Arts Center.
“Vernon Staggers was the principal, and he was an outstanding steward of educational standards. But as an eighth grader, I was prohibited from winning the Golden Horseshoe award as one of the highest scorers in Mineral County on a statewide standardized examination,” he said. “My score qualified me, but my parents were informed by a member of the Board of Education that the highest I could have achieved was sixth place because the host hotel did not allow Blacks to stay there.”
Gates graduated from Piedmont High School in 1962 at age 16. He was recognized as the class salutatorian and received the Westvaco award as the most outstanding student-athlete in his class. He was informed that he could not be named the valedictorian, however, because the school administration thought the town would not accept a Black student as the smartest student in the class at that time. After graduation, like his brother, Skip, Rocky enrolled at Potomac State College.
“I went from attending a high school with 30 students in my graduating class to an institution which had approximately 700 students and only three Blacks,” Dr. Gates said. “Potomac State did provide me with an environment that allowed the transition to eventuate smoothly, and Dr. James Hanlon (former professor of Biology and former school President) became a prized mentor.”
While in college, Dr. Gates said he encountered several incidents of racial bias and prejudice during the two years he spent on campus – indicative of the turbulent times at the height of the civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“I made the school basketball team but was only allowed to play at home games. For away games I didn’t travel with the team,” Gates said. “I was informed that the issue was that I wouldn’t be allowed to stay in the hotels where the team was housed on the trips. Also, many of the students would hang out at the Blue Jay restaurant in New Creek and the Royal restaurant in Keyser. They would sometimes ask me to join them, but because I was Black, I was asked to leave those establishments.”
A few years later, his brother Skip, with three other local Black residents – known as the “Fearsome Foursome” – pressured the Blue Jay to integrate.
While at Potomac State, Rocky Gates befriended a fellow student, Jim Courrier. Jim would later marry Dinah Courrier.
“Rocky and Jim are lifelong friends,” Dinah Courrier said. “Rocky is the reason Jim went to dental school. Rocky was already enrolled in dental school, and he and Jim had met at Potomac State College and were great friends. One day, Rocky said to Jim, ‘Why don’t you attend dental school with me?’ and Jim did. I don’t think Jim and I would have had the life and careers we have had without Rocky’s friendship.”
Dr. Paul Gates received his undergraduate degree from WVU in 1966 and immediately attended dental school.
“I was interested in the medical field because I observed the local doctors who lived in the Tri-Towns had a better quality of life,” Gates said. “After graduation, I applied for the WVU dental school, and I was accepted two days later. Dr. Robert Biddington, who grew up in Piedmont, became my mentor. I really enjoyed oral surgery.”
In his senior year in 1970, Gates was accepted into the three-year oral surgery residency at Harlem Hospital in New York City. He completed the residency in 1973 and entered into a private oral surgery practice. He was then hired as an associate in an oral surgery group practice with offices in Paterson, NJ and Wayne, NJ, becoming one of the few Black oral surgeons in the country to work in an integrated practice. He would later become the Chairman of Dentistry and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Bronx Care Health System in New York City, where, among his many other duties, he was responsible for the provision of post-graduate dental training residencies.
In 2021, Gates received the William J. Gies Award for Innovation and Achievement from the American Dental Education Association. He was only the second Black dentist to be so honored. Dr. Gates has written extensively about minority experiences in dentistry, both from a patient and oral healthcare professional perspective. He has authored or co-authored numerous dental literature papers as an advocate researching the lack of diversity in the dental workforce and documenting the oral health experiences of underrepresented communities, including Native American, Alaskan Natives, Hispanic, and Black cultures.
“Much of my research and contributions to the literature of my profession have focused on underrepresented minorities both as applicants to dental school and as private practitioners. Fifty years after I graduated from dental school, Black students only comprise about 5% of first-year students nationwide,” Dr. Gates said.
After building a flourishing practice as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and esteemed college professor, Dr. Gates went back to school and earned an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1992.
“I made the decision to move from dental education into university administration,” said Gates. “I became the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Subsequent events moved me back into dental education, and I elected to enhance my credentials with an executive MBA.”
In a full-circle family moment, when his brother filmed an episode of Finding Your Roots that focused on their own rich family tree, Rocky Gates found himself part of that production and part of a wider Gates family reunion that took place in Cumberland during that episode’s taping nearly two years ago. The event coincided with the opening of the Jane Gates House as a Museum and the first observance of Jane Gates Day in August of that year. Jane Gates was the first woman and first person of color to own her own home in Allegany County, Maryland. She purchased the property just five years after being emancipated. She was also Dr. Paul Gates’ great-great-grandmother.
Shortly after the Civil War, Jane Gates appears in the 1870 census as a nurse and laundress and at 51 years of age, living with two of her children and two grandchildren. Records from the Allegany County Courthouse in Cumberland note that in 1871, Jane Gates bought the eight-room house at 515 Greene Street in Cumberland, Maryland, for $1,400. She is also noted to be the first Black woman in Allegany County to open her own bank account.
Dr. Gates and his wife Gemina have eight children. Their youngest son – Aaron - is following in his father’s footsteps in the medical profession as a student enrolled in WVU medical school.
“Although it is very gratifying that he is attending WVU, it is quite remarkable that 50 years after I was the only Black student in my dental school for four years, he is the only Black student in his medical school class,” he said.
Rocky Gates continues to be celebrated and applauded to this day as an innovator of and mentor to others in his profession.
“Dr. Gates is a pioneer in dental education,” Dr. Jeanne Sinkford, the first female dean of the Harvard University Dental School and Senior Scholar in Residence at the American Dental Education Association, said. “He is a scholar and a visionary who has made opportunities available for minorities and women in a profession that has (historically) excluded women from high-level positions.”
“Dr. Paul Gates is one of those unique leaders who exemplifies both confidence and humility, hope and assurance,” said N. Karl Haden, PhD, president and CEO of the Academy for Advancing Leadership. “Dr. Gates overcame many obstacles along the way as he developed leaders, particularly among residents of color.”
As far as his philosophy of life, Dr. Paul “Rocky” Gates does indeed have one.
“You have to be both designer and weaver, not simply a thread in the fabric of life,” he said.
Jane Gates Day continues to be observed in Cumberland, Maryland. It will be held this year on Monday, August 31, with ceremonies on the grounds and tours of the historic home.
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