Sally Gates: be generous, honest and kind

Last year, Sally Gates organized the golf league at the Country Club of Ithaca, and according to friend Julie Crowley, “if she hadn’t done the work, we never would have played. We never would have had a league last year.”

Even during the pandemic, Sally saw the importance of creating community, keeping up with people and the continuation of traditions. Sally died April 14 of this year, on her beloved husband’s birthday. She was 75 years young.

Sally Snow Gates was born in Biddeford, Maine, in 1945 and grew up in Canastota, New York. She attended the Albany School of Pharmacy, where she met her husband, Reeder Gates, and the two married shortly after they graduated in 1968.

Soon after, in 1972, they moved to Ithaca, purchased their first of three drug stores, Hill Drug in Collegetown, and welcomed their son, Jason Gates.

Over the next few years, they purchased The Northside Pharmacy on Cayuga Street in Ithaca, now Kinney Drugs, established the second Hill Drug Store in Dryden, and welcomed their two daughters, Erin and Ainsley Gates.

The Gates were very proud of their business and that it allowed them to give back and serve the community that supported them. Sources spoke of how Sally and Reeder always went above and beyond and made sure that the people in their community were taken care of.

“After hours, at night, [Reeder] would go and deliver prescriptions to people that couldn’t get out and couldn’t come and get their prescriptions — delivered to them. It’s unbelievable,” close friend Mo Reycroft said.

While owning and running three pharmacies and raising their children, Reeder and Sally also served on multiple boards. Their daughters Ainsley and Erin, M.D., said they have yet to figure out how their parents managed to balance so many things at once.

“My mother had grit and vision, and my dad was smart,” Ainsley said. “There was never an amount of work for my parents that was too much. They enjoyed helping and enjoyed working.”

Reeder served on the Board of Directors for both Tompkins Financial and the Tompkins Trust Company for a total of 29 years. Greg Hartz, president and CEO of Tompkins Trust Company, spoke to Reeder’s character and how he was instrumental on the boards.

“[He] offered very patient, very kind, very thoughtful, intelligent and just very, very sound leadership as a board member,” Hartz said. “Reeder was just a really really strong member of the community. He owned a business in the community, he depended on the community for his business, and so, he gave back to the community as well.”

Sally served on the YMCA of Ithaca & Tompkins County Board of Directors, and, according to CEO Frank Towner, “even after her term on the Board, she continued to support us financially, emotionally. Things were tough or things were good, she was here for us.”

In 2009, tragedy struck the family with the death of their son, Jason. Erin and Ainsley recounted how, while their family was ever-changed, their mom used her pain to help others going through similar situations and that she tried to celebrate and honor him in everything she did to keep his memory alive.

One place she did this was at their second home, the Country Club of Ithaca, now RaNic. The Gates children grew up at the Club, and trees were planted on the course in memory of Jason, and his parents planned and held tournaments that memorialized him.

Both Sally and Reeder were longtime members of the Club and each served on various boards there. Sean and Jennifer Whittaker, owners of RaNic and great friends and admirers of the Gates, said they are working to memorialize Sally and the Gates at the Club.

“There’ll be a great memorial here for her,” Jennifer said. “We’re planning at RaNic to design and construct a patio down below that we will call the Gates Overlook.”

Sean recounted what the Gates’ presence was like at the Club.

“They had a lot of foresight into the direction of the Club,” he said. “They just were those people that everyone looked up to, but they were also extremely likable, humble, easy to talk to. … If you sat out on the deck overlooking the pond, they were all here with their kids, and how jovial and fun and connected they really were as a family.”

“While they were really good to Ithaca, Ithaca was very good to them,” Erin said. “And not just Ithaca, but the people of Ithaca.”

Colleagues and friends spoke to Sally and Reeder’s character and their extensive involvement in the Ithaca community.

“Reeder and Sally, I think, are just great examples of the kind of people that every community needs and depends on really to be a healthy community,” Hartz said “They were just very very involved in the community on so many levels. People who build their business and employ people in the community and then give back.”

“She was a lover. She loved people,” Towner said. “She loved to support people. She loved to support people who, like her, cared. There was just a real genuine love of folks, and she cared enough to tell you the truth.”

Friend Lori Atsedes said of the Gates that they were “people you can’t really replace in a community” and that “it’s just going to be a big void for a long time.”

“They were such a presence in the community of so many behind-the-scenes things that they did for people that people don’t even know about,” Reycroft said. “And they just touched so many people’s lives in a small way, but yet the people that received their friendship and their kindness will never ever forget them.”

Erin and Ainsley said the most important thing their parents taught them was morals.

“Every single thing that you do goes back to the morals and the values that you’ve been taught,” they said. “And those are, be a good human being, kindness, to be honest — you don’t know what the other person [is] going through, so treat everybody with kindness no matter what. … Be good people, be good friends, be a good sister, be a good mother, just do the best you can do.”

A memorial mass for Sally will be streamed online April 30 at 11 a.m. from St. Catherine’s of Siena in Ithaca. To access the livestream, visit stcathofsiena.org, click on the livestream link and then select the service.