By Michael Freeman, Managing Editor
For 36 years, Dr. Edward E. Coates, professor emeritus of education, helped ACU students and fellow church members by teaching, listening and imparting Biblical advice.
“Ed touched many students’ lives in a positive way through the years,” said Dr. Colleen Durrington, former dean of College of Arts and Sciences, in an ACU press release. “When I think about Ed, I think of his faith, patience and positive thinking in difficult times.”
Coates died Saturday in Abilene after a sevenyear battle with cancer. He was 74. His wife, Dr. Jane Coates, professor emerita of education, survives him along with their children Nancy, Nick, Nelson and Neal. One son, Nathan, preceded Coates in death. Memorial services will be Sunday at the University Church of Christ.
Coates was born in St. Louis in 1934. He grew up there until he attended David Lipscomb University, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in biology, Bible and speech. Coates then received a master’s degree in education administration and elementary education from Middle Tennessee State University in 1962 and a doctorate in education from the University of Tennessee in 1970.
In 1972, Coates and his family moved to Abilene, where he began a career as a professor and a pulpit minister at Westgate Church of Christ. That same year, Jane also began teaching in ACU’s Department of Education.
“My mom and dad always highly valued Christian education and as life-long lovers of Churches of Christ they were very well acquainted with Church of Christ schools,” said Dr. Neal Coates, assistant professor of political science. “They really liked ACC’s possibilities for growth and how it was influencing students, and when the opportunity came up in 1972 to move here, they did.”
Coates and his wife continued teaching in the Department of Education until Jane retired in 1993. Coates kept teaching and served on a number of committees, including the Faculty Senate. He retired last August.
“They were a team,” Neal Coates said. “By the time they had both gotten their master’s degrees, they had pretty much set on this great interest in teaching people and bettering people by instruction.”Outside of his university career, Coates instructed fellow Abilenians as he served as an education minister, counseling minister and elder at Highland Church of Christ for nearly 20 years. He also worked as a part-time private counselor and spoke at seminars on human sexuality and marriage at churches across the nation.
“He helped hundreds of individuals, couples and families with a variety of problems,” Neal Coates said. “He helped people get their heads on straight and figure out how God’s grace could help them be strong.”
Coates’ love for learning did not stop at academia; his interests ranged from science to weather to technology. He would read every issue of Popular Mechanics from cover-to-cover, Neal Coates said.
“He was one of those people who just had a quest for learning and he had a love for God’s people,” Neal Coates said. “He was a good teacher.”
