John Bates

September 17, 1937 - May 20, 2024

John Bates, a life-long southern Californian was born in Los Angeles to Thelma (Trompeter) Bates and John L Bates. John's father owned and operated several markets in Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, and Pasadena called Aeromart and Bates Market. Until John was 7 they lived on the beach in a trailer in Santa Monica and then moved to Pasadena. 

John met his wife Judy, the love of his life, in high school at South Pasadena High School. After dating throughout high school and a few years of college, John and Judy were married in December 1958 in South Pasadena. Their first home was in Pasadena and they retired in Dana Point and then San Juan Capistrano. John and Judy enjoyed entertaining, traveling and sailing together. They had owned sailboats over the years, where they entertained friends and enjoyed romantic sail excursions to Catalina and spending time in Avalon.

From a young age John learned to play the ukulele, piano, banjo, and guitar, and regaled his friends with his musical talents at parties. In his youth, John even earned a little extra pocket money playing the ukulele at parties for people that hired him. Always the athlete, John was an avid runner and cyclist and competed in dozens of 10k races, marathons and triathlons throughout his adult life, including the Baja Buns, the Catalina 10k where he placed first in his age division when he was 50 years old, and was one of the original Turkey Trotters in the Dana Point 10k.

John's athletic talents were shared by his children and he competed in triathlons, cycling and running races with them, as well as skiing, surfing, and sailing. Always the adventurer, John took his kids on some amazing bike trips. John led Jennifer and a group of her teenaged friends on a 50 miles bike ride from San Juan Capistrano to San Diego and camped along the way. Several years later he rode bikes with Jennifer from San Francisco to Santa Barbara through Big Sur along Pacific Coast Highway. He was the first to zip around on an E Bike in Dana Point in 2010. John and his daughter Jennifer's last bike ride together was on John's 80th birthday.

John started his first very successful business, Westmark and Associates in 1971. Later in 1988 he started a business brokerage firm called Ventura. He became a mentor to many young entrepreneurs over the years. John proudly served his civic duty as the Traffic Commissioner of Dana Point from 1988 to 1990 and was instrumental in preventing Selva Road from becoming a 4-lane road.

Upon retirement in 2011, John was honored to be a board member of the Gilmore Farmer's Market in Los Angeles. Also in retirement, John, always the history buff, enjoyed volunteering as a docent at the San Juan Capistrano Mission. John shared his wisdom and treasured his time with his grandchildren. He was very well read and you could always find him with a great history book.

John would always take the time to look you in the eye and want to hear about how and what you've been doing. John was fearless as an entrepreneur, athlete and businessman. Nothing seemed impossible. His daughter Jennifer knew she was lucky to have such a father and will never forget the lessons she learned from him - his fearlessness, independence, passion, public speaking, and always his connections with people.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Judy Anderson Bates '55, along with his son Jeff Bates and daughter Jennifer (Jeff) Allert, and two grandchildren.

John loved a great gin martini, shaken not stirred. Cheers to a life well lived. If you had crossed paths with John Bates you knew you were one of the lucky ones...