1914-2004

NORWAY – Lloyd Stearns Gates, 89, of Norway, formerly of Weston, Mass., passed away early Friday, Jan. 30.

He was born Oct. 16, 1914, on his grandfather Richard Gates’ farm on Stearns Hill in West Paris. He had been married to Loretta (Muriel) Haskell Gates of Forest Hills, N.Y. for 62 years.

He graduated from Paris High School in 1931. His teenage years were marked by a certain amount of daring and adventure. Inspired by Charles Lindbergh, Lloyd built an uncovered canvas winged airplane glider in 1929 with a group of chums, including long friends Frank Goldsmith and Stan Merrill.

He attended Wentworth Technical Institute in Boston and attained a graduation certificate in 1935 in tool and die engineering. He then became a machinist at R.H. Wilder in Waltham, Mass., an optics and speciality mechanical equipment manufacturer, where he retired in 1970 as their chief executive responsible for marketing and sales.

A church leader, he served on the Vestry of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Newton Lower Falls, Mass., for nearly 20 years as clerk, junior warden and senior warden. He also served many terms on the Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church in Norway, including several as senior warden. Lloyd was a master mason affiliated with the lodge in Waltham, Mass. founded by Paul Revere.

After his retirement in 1970, Lloyd and his family moved to Norway, where he remained active in civic affiars and public services for over 30 years. He chaired the planning board for the town of Norway throughout the 1970s and 1980s. As a long time member of the Androscoggin Valley Planning Commission he helped introduce the shoreland zoning ordinances, which will help to protect the vitality of water bodies throughout the region for generations to come. He was a charter member of the Lakes Association of Norway and served as its second president for a number of years in the 1970s.

Following his life long passion for aviation, and recognizing the potential for regional economic development, he was active in the local leadership group that set the strategy, bought land and obtained the grants from the Federal Aviation Administration which resulted in the creation of the Oxford Airport in the early 1970s and the adjacent Oxford Airport Development Park. He has been a member of the Norway-Paris Kiwanis Club for over 35 years, a member of the Norway Weary Club, a Trustee of the Norway Library, a director of Camp O-At-Ka, the Maine camp for boys in East Sebago. He was president emeritus of the Norway Dunker’s Club-Involuntary.

Survivors include: his wife Loretta; their six children, Richard and Elizabeth Gates of Rochester, N.Y., James and Barbi Tinder of Stoneham, John and Cheryln Gates of Natick, Mass., James Stearns Gates of Waterville, Steve and Joan Gates of Andover, Mass. and William and Sharon Gates of Peru, his brother Stanley Richard Gates of South Paris; 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

He was predeceased by a brother, Raymond Jackson (Jack) Gates in 1951.