Prologue: The Celebration of Millard Bates
Hundreds gather in Salem to honor the passing of a teaching-officiating-coaching legend
I needed a day to digest the 100 minutes of public displays of affection for Salem sports and education icon Millard Bates. The man best-known for his enthusiastic displays as a basketball official passed away April 20th, but he was publicly honored at Salem Evangelical Church May 12th.
200-300 people (best guess) gathered in person for the event, while hundreds more viewed it all via the online stream.
There was upbeat, faith-based music celebrating Millard’s passing into heaven, with a strong evangelical message from his pastor about how Mr. Bates lived his life to the fullest while serving so many people and his God over the decades.
Even more powerful was the celebratory messages from those greatly influenced by an extraordinary man.
I was part of a trio of former student/athlete speakers who adored Millard. All of three of us shared about our experiences with Mr. Bates as a teacher, a coach, and even an official. Former North Salem and Parrish student/athlete Greg Rowles had a neatly typed set of notes that he used to paint a verbal picture of the coach he loved. Also speaking was former North Salem all-state quarterback Gib Gilmore. He read from carefully crafted notes he had written on a precisely folded yellow sheet of paper. Gib had received direction from Millard while at Parrish Junior High School. There was emotion in each sentence Gib uttered, and the audience listened carefully to each thought. Powerful.
There was humor injected into each speech given, but perhaps the best stories came from Millard’s brotherhood of officials. Dozens of men in stripes were on hand for the service, and two spoke for all of them. Longtime officials Steve Buhlen and Bart Baldwin shared stories of working with the effervescent Millard on the court, and the terrors of riding in the car with the former driver’s ed teacher.
With many thanks to KPTV’s Nick Krupke, the audience got to see Millard one last time in a video feature on his sixty-plus years on the court that aired several years back. There was a mixture of laughter and tears as we all enjoyed one last episode of officiating, Millard-style. The story was recorded at the Salem middle school just down the road from my home.
The emotion was high as Milllard’s eldest son Mike shared about (his wife) and kids living with their famous dad, and what he brought to the family. His two surviving brothers and sister nodded in affirmation with each story; stories of traveling to watch dad calling games, and hearing what some crowd members said about him; qualities his dad displayed, which included a child-like joy for life, a great work ethic, a spiritual awareness due to his focused faith in God, and an personal intensity to succeed. Mike’s words were better than this summary, but they epitomized Millard Bates as a man. .
When the service came to a close, the family exited to the church foyer and we all followed them out—and for another hour, many of us just chatted—and chatted—and chatted. I met folks who knew both Millard and my late father; there were former students of mine who also knew him from sports. Still others had connections to other members of my family, or had interacted with me and Millard at sporting events where I had broadcast.
Funerals/memorial services frequently serve as occasions to catch up with people we haven’t seen in quite some time. Millard’s memorial was the perfect event for such socialization. It was almost as if the fun-loving man himself had stepped down from heaven for a few minutes to take part in our informal chats.
We all miss Millard Bates, but we were glad to see each other so we could miss him together.
OF NOTE: Here are some links for folks who missed the service (click on the underlined content)-- the recording of the livestream, and/or the KPTV video feature on Millard.