Anthropologist, Botanist, and Geneticist. He was born in Canada near Middleton, Nova Scotia. He was the son of Andreas Bohaker Gates and Charlotte Elizabeth Ruggles and had a twin sister name Charlotte. Receiving an excellent education, he graduated with first class honors in science from Mount Allison University in 1903, a second B.Sc. focusing on botany from McGill University in 1905, and then accepted a Senior Fellowship at University of Chicago in Illinois where he completed his Ph.D. on heredity in Oenothera lata in 1908. He did botanical work in Missouri in 1910 and was a Professor of Biology at King's College London. In 1911, Gates married Marie Stopes, who had a common interest in geneticist; their marriage was annulled in 1914. In 1955, he married Laura Greer. He was known for his studies of Oenthera and other plants, but in 1923, his interest was focused in Heredity and Eugenics. He considered racial differences to be great between groups of people, but did not necessarily believe in a pure form of Caucasian as superior. He published his work in “A botanist in the Amazon Valley” in 1927 and “Heredity in Man” in 1929. Some of his reasoning was popular during Adolph Hitler’s reign in Germany, but he maintained this reasoning on race and eugenics long after World War II, into the era when this type of reasoning was deemed out-of-date by most. Dr. R. Ruggles Gates was a founder of “Mankind Quarterly”, which at that time was associated to the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics. He was well-published: In 1946 “Human Genetics”, a two volume book having 31 chapters explaining a basic overview of human genetics before going into details about heredity of the color of eyes, shape of the ear, shade of skin colors, hemophilia, twins, cancer, skeleton formation, allergies, blood types, and other characteristics passed from breeding. It was at this point his reputation as an eugenicist becomes prominent. He studied and published data on mixed races. Other works published were “Book Reviews: Human Ancestry from a Genetical Point of View” published in “The Journal of Science” in 1949; “Book Reviews: Pedigrees of Negro Families” and “Taste Reactions to Antithyroid Substances” in both published 1950; “Totem Poles and Blood Groups” and “Disadvantages of Race Mixture” both published in the “Journal of Nature” in 1952. While at Harvard University, he published article in a national magazine about “The Indian remnants in Eastern Cuba” in 1954; this dealt with the mixed races of the Cuban population. He won various awards and in 1931 was elected to the Royal Society with this quote from his nomination: “Professor Gates enjoys a widespread reputation as a distinguished investigator of cytological problems and especially in connection with genetics. He has thrown much light on the behavior of Olnothera, which formed the basis of De Vries well-known theory of mutations. He has trained a number of cytological students, some of whom now fill posts of importance. He is the author of over 100 papers and memoirs, some of which have been published by the Royal Society. Latterly he has paid attention to genetical anthropology and is the author of several books on this subject.” One of his last publications was "Racial Elements in the Aborigines of Queensland, Australia" in 1960. A biographical article “Reginald Ruggles Gates, 1882-1962” by J. A. Fraser Robert was published in the “Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society”, V. 10 1964. He is memorialized by the Ruggles Gates Award at Mount Allison University.
(bio by Linda Davis (#46609907)