Mayor Webb Melder said Cates was not only a good family man but leaves a legacy with the community.

“He was an asset to the city, an asset to the community and an asset to his chosen profession as a veterinarian,” Melder said.

According to information provided by the family, Cates was born in 1928. Once he was old enough, Cates joined the United States Army, where he served the country in the Korean War in 1946. While in the Army, Cates was a commissary steward and was charged with guarding the commissary shack.

When asked if he had ever shot anyone, he recalled a time while on duty and he heard glass break in the shack. When he went to investigate, he came face to face with a man who quickly jumped back through the window and ran away.

“Guess he didn’t want to stay for supper,” Cates is remembered commenting about the incident.

Cates was a graduate of Texas A&M University, where he majored in veterinary medicine. Following his graduation, Cates started working at a veterinary clinic in Tomball, where he cared for large and small animals all over Montgomery County.

In fact, on one house call, Cates visited the farm of Nick and Leona Campagna where he met their daughter Ladoris Campagna and her three small children, Donnie, Debbie and Brenda. Smitten with Ladoris, Cates increased his visits to the farm and eventually married Ladoris in 1960. They had two more children, Mary and Becky, but according to the family, Cates considered all the children his and was always proud of them.

The children remember spending time with their father and even helping deliver puppies, calves and even assisting with surgery. In 1961, Cates opened Conroe Veterinary Clinic, where he became well known in the Conroe community. After a successful career, Cates retired in 1983.

Cates joined the Tomball Lions Club in 1959 before transferring to the Conroe Noon Lions Club in 1961. During his tenure, he earned many awards and accolades, including Lion of the Year in 1975, club president in 1976-77, Melvin Jones Fellow in 1994, Life Membership Honorarium in 1994, District 2-S2 Governor in 1996-97 and District 2-S2 Hall of Fame in 2002-03.

When he decided he needed more to do, he ran for Conroe municipal judge, where he served on the bench from 1994 to 2010.

According to family members, Cates felt through his job as judge, he could help the children of Conroe become upstanding citizens and help them turn their lives around.

While serving as judge, Cates helped increase revenue for the city, generating almost $2 million in 2009 with the dispositions of 20,191 cases.

Cates, along with his staff, received statewide recognition in 2009 from the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center’s Municipal Traffic Safety Initiative by reducing the number of driving violations by juveniles in Conroe. The program ordered juveniles with driving violations to write a 500-word essay after they took defensive driving. In addition to the essay, the juvenile offender had to place a bumper sticker on the car that stated “Bad driving?” and provided a phone number and the juvenile’s case number.

The court reported that year that it had no repeat offenders.

While juvenile cases made up a small portion of the caseload, helping children was a passion of Cates’.

“These minors, teens and juveniles are our children, yours, mine and ours,” Cates said in a 2010 candidate questionnaire for The Courier. “They need guidance. I am doing my best to help make them law-abiding citizens and, for the most part, have done a pretty good job.”