BIDDEFORD — Elliott M. Bates, 90, of 93 Winter Street, Auburn, and Kennebunkport, an architect, teacher, and outdoor enthusiast, died April 14 at the Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford.

Active throughout his life in civic and professional affairs, Mr. Bates had for many years been a leading figure in the architectural profession in the state of Maine and enjoyed a long career at Alonzo J. Harriman Associates of Auburn, with progressive responsibilities to president of the firm before his retirement in the mid-1980s. During that time, too, he was active in the Maine chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), serving as chapter president in 1965-66.

In recent years, Mr. Bates had been an active teacher and volunteer at the Adult Learning Center in Lewiston, where he taught courses in math and English as a second language.

Born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, on October 22, 1920, Mr. Bates was the son of Roy Elliott Bates and Helen Bartlett (Maxcy) Bates. He was raised in Gardiner, Maine, attending local schools there. He was a 1937 graduate of The Loomis School in Windsor, Connecticut and attended Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

In 1937, Mr. Bates joined the round-the-world voyage of the schooner Yankee, skippered by Capt. Irving Johnson, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Mr. Bates, at the time the schooner’s youngest crew member, joined the ship in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. “(He) became ship’s measurer as soon as he revealed his aptitude with figures and lines (and) made drawings of all parts of the Yankee that form a valuable record…” wrote Irving and Electa Johnson in their record of the voyage, Sailing to See. The voyage kindled a lifelong love of sailing and he frequently cruised with friends and family in the coastal waters of Maine and New England and the Atlantic provinces.

Having enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, he was enrolled in advanced civil engineering training in the Army Specialized Training Program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and he later served as a medic with the Army Medical Department attached to the 26th Infantry (Yankee Division) in France and Germany, including the Battle of the Bulge.

Following his Army service, Mr. Bates attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1948.

Mr. Bates met his future wife, the former Phyllis Jacobson of Brockton, Massachusetts, on Monhegan Island, Maine. The couple settled in Lewiston and then Auburn and raised their family in Auburn. Mrs. Bates died in 1987 following a long illness.

He continued his involvement with Monhegan throughout his life, was active as a member and trustee of the conservation organization Monhegan Associates, and was a founding sponsor of the Monhegan Museum.

Mr. Bates was an active supporter and member of outdoors and conservation organizations. A long-time supporter of the Androscoggin Land Trust, he endowed a stewardship award within that organization. He was an enthusiastic hiker and mountaineer, a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), and editor of the 7th edition of the AMC Maine Mountain Guide, published in 1993. Mr. Bates had climbed many of the mountains and hills described in the Guide; he enjoyed annual climbs of Mt. Katahdin with members of his family.

Committed to his community, Mr. Bates was active in numerous civic organizations and initiatives. Among other responsibilities, he was a former director of the Auburn-Lewiston YMCA, a corporator of Central Maine General Hospital, a director of the Androscoggin County Development Corp., and an advisor to the Capitol Planning Commission in Augusta. He was also a supporter of the Auburn Public Library, the YWCA of Central Maine, and The Nature Conservancy.

Mr. Bates is survived by four children, Susan (Bates) Eddy of St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, John Elliott Bates of Newton, Massachusetts, Deborah Maxcy Bates of Bonny Doon, California, and Daniel Waldemar Bates of Kennebunkport, Maine; and 11 grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for late summer on Monhegan Island. Donations may be sent to the Appalachian Mountain Club, 5 Joy Street, Boston, MA 02108, or as a memorial donation online at the AMC website www.outdoors.org.