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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=Phillip Ray "Phil" Cates |image=Phil Cates of TX.jpg |caption=Cates in 1974 |office=Texas State Representative for District 79 |term_start=Jan..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Phillip Ray "Phil" Cates
|image=Phil Cates of TX.jpg
|caption=Cates in 1974
|office=[[Texas]] State Representative for District 79
|term_start=January 12, 1971
|term_end=January 9, 1973
|preceded=[[Malouf Abraham, Sr.]] (redistricted)
|succeeded=Ron Waters
|office2=Texas State Representative for District 66
|term_start2=January 9, 1973
|term_end2=January 9, 1979
|preceded2=George Baker
|succeeded2=Foster Whaley
|birth_date=January 6, 1947
|birth_place=Pampa, Texas
|death_date=July 13, 2014 (aged 67)
|death_place=
|resting_place=Texas State Cemetery
|spouse=Nancy Holt Cates (married 1970–2014, his death)
|children=Two children
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|occupation=[[Lobbyist]]
|alma_mater=West Texas A&M University}}
'''Phillip Ray Cates''',<ref>Some sources cite "Phillips", instead of Phillip; one used the middle initial "E," instead of "R" for "Ray".</ref> known as '''Phil Cates''' (January 6, 1947 – July 13, 2014), was an [[United States|America]] [[politician]] an lobbyist who served as a [[Texas]] state representative from 1971 to 1979. He represented some ten mostly sparsely populated counties in the Panhandle.<ref name=tlrl>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=594&searchparams=chamber=~city=~countyID=0~RcountyID=~district=~first=~gender=~last=Cates~leaderNote=~leg=~party=Democrat~roleDesc=~Committee=#bio|title=Phil Cates|publisher=Texas Legislative Reference Library|accessdate=January 8, 2021}}</ref>
==Background==
Cates was born in Pampa in Gray County, the second largest city in the Panhandle, northeast of the most populous city, [[Amarillo]], to Herman Ray Cates (1917–1998), a veteran of the [[United States Army]] Air Forces in [[World War II]], and the former Lavern Robertson (1923–2009), a native of Beckham County, [[Oklahoma]]. He was reared in nearby Lefors, also in Gray County, where his parents are interred at Memorial Heights Cemetery.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Cates&GSfn=Herman&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=46&GScnty=2609&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=8245983&df=all&|title=Herman Ray Cates|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=January 8, 2021}}</ref>
Cates left Lefors in 1965 to enroll at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, then known as West Texas State University. There, he was elected four times to the Student Senate and was a member of the [[Southern Baptist|Baptist]] Student Union and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. In 1998, West Texas A&M named him a "Distinguished Alumnus."<ref name=tsc/><ref name=pampaarticle/>
In 1970, the former Nancy Holt (also born 1947), originally from Pampa. Their two sons are Andrew and John Cates.<ref name="tsc" />
==Career==
In 1970, Cates was elected to succeed the two-term [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Malouf Abraham Sr.]], a wealthy businessman from Canadian in Hemphill County, whose District 84 was blended into revised District 79. Abraham instead ran unsuccessfully for the District 31 seat in the Texas State Senate against Democrat Max Sherman.<ref>''Texas Almanac 1972/1973,'' Election returns from November 3, 1970.</ref> Cates won his own [[primary]] in the spring by a margin of only two votes.<ref name=pampaarticle>{{cite web|url=http://www.thepampanews.com/obituaries/article_3a2906ae-18f8-11e4-b8d2-001a4bcf6878.html|title=Phillip R. Cates|date=August 1, 2014|accessdate=June 29, 2015}}</ref>
For his second term, Cates moved to Pampa in reconfigured District 66. ''Texas Monthly'' gave him unfavorable reviews in 1973.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.texasmonthly.com/content/ten-best-and-sigh-ten-worst-legislators/page/0/5|title=The Ten Best (And, Sigh, The Ten Worst) Legislators|publisher=texasmonthly.com|date=July 1973|accessdate=June 29, 2015}}</ref> By 1974, Cates was residing in Shamrock in Wheeler County for his third and fourth terms in the legislature. When he was moved to District 66 with the 1972 election, only Gray and Wheeler Counties were held over from his original District 79.<ref name=tlrl/>
After his four legislative terms, Cates became a lobbyist and worked in the capital city of [[Austin]], first, with former House Speaker Byron Tunnell from 1980 to 1989. He was a lobbyist for Tenneco of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] for nine years in nine southeastern states. In Austin in 1989 and 1990, he was a lobbyist for the Texas Association of Business. In 1991, he joined the firm of former Speaker Bill W. Clayton, at which he remained until 1996, when he opened his own firm, Texas Stakeholders. He remained in that capacity until his death of [[lung cancer]]<ref name=pampaarticle/> in 2014 at the age of 67.<ref name=tsc>{{cite web|url=http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?pers_id=9970|title=Phil Cates|publisher=cemetery.state.tx.us|accessdate=June 29, 2015}}</ref>
Cates, who had resided in Dripping Springs in Hays County near Austin, is interred at Texas State Cemetery in Austin, where graveside services were held on July 26, 2014, with his former legislative colleague Max Sherman among the speakers.<ref name=tsc/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cates, Phil}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Lobbyists]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:State Representatives]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Southern Baptists]]
|name=Phillip Ray "Phil" Cates
|image=Phil Cates of TX.jpg
|caption=Cates in 1974
|office=[[Texas]] State Representative for District 79
|term_start=January 12, 1971
|term_end=January 9, 1973
|preceded=[[Malouf Abraham, Sr.]] (redistricted)
|succeeded=Ron Waters
|office2=Texas State Representative for District 66
|term_start2=January 9, 1973
|term_end2=January 9, 1979
|preceded2=George Baker
|succeeded2=Foster Whaley
|birth_date=January 6, 1947
|birth_place=Pampa, Texas
|death_date=July 13, 2014 (aged 67)
|death_place=
|resting_place=Texas State Cemetery
|spouse=Nancy Holt Cates (married 1970–2014, his death)
|children=Two children
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|occupation=[[Lobbyist]]
|alma_mater=West Texas A&M University}}
'''Phillip Ray Cates''',<ref>Some sources cite "Phillips", instead of Phillip; one used the middle initial "E," instead of "R" for "Ray".</ref> known as '''Phil Cates''' (January 6, 1947 – July 13, 2014), was an [[United States|America]] [[politician]] an lobbyist who served as a [[Texas]] state representative from 1971 to 1979. He represented some ten mostly sparsely populated counties in the Panhandle.<ref name=tlrl>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=594&searchparams=chamber=~city=~countyID=0~RcountyID=~district=~first=~gender=~last=Cates~leaderNote=~leg=~party=Democrat~roleDesc=~Committee=#bio|title=Phil Cates|publisher=Texas Legislative Reference Library|accessdate=January 8, 2021}}</ref>
==Background==
Cates was born in Pampa in Gray County, the second largest city in the Panhandle, northeast of the most populous city, [[Amarillo]], to Herman Ray Cates (1917–1998), a veteran of the [[United States Army]] Air Forces in [[World War II]], and the former Lavern Robertson (1923–2009), a native of Beckham County, [[Oklahoma]]. He was reared in nearby Lefors, also in Gray County, where his parents are interred at Memorial Heights Cemetery.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Cates&GSfn=Herman&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=46&GScnty=2609&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=8245983&df=all&|title=Herman Ray Cates|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=January 8, 2021}}</ref>
Cates left Lefors in 1965 to enroll at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, then known as West Texas State University. There, he was elected four times to the Student Senate and was a member of the [[Southern Baptist|Baptist]] Student Union and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. In 1998, West Texas A&M named him a "Distinguished Alumnus."<ref name=tsc/><ref name=pampaarticle/>
In 1970, the former Nancy Holt (also born 1947), originally from Pampa. Their two sons are Andrew and John Cates.<ref name="tsc" />
==Career==
In 1970, Cates was elected to succeed the two-term [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Malouf Abraham Sr.]], a wealthy businessman from Canadian in Hemphill County, whose District 84 was blended into revised District 79. Abraham instead ran unsuccessfully for the District 31 seat in the Texas State Senate against Democrat Max Sherman.<ref>''Texas Almanac 1972/1973,'' Election returns from November 3, 1970.</ref> Cates won his own [[primary]] in the spring by a margin of only two votes.<ref name=pampaarticle>{{cite web|url=http://www.thepampanews.com/obituaries/article_3a2906ae-18f8-11e4-b8d2-001a4bcf6878.html|title=Phillip R. Cates|date=August 1, 2014|accessdate=June 29, 2015}}</ref>
For his second term, Cates moved to Pampa in reconfigured District 66. ''Texas Monthly'' gave him unfavorable reviews in 1973.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.texasmonthly.com/content/ten-best-and-sigh-ten-worst-legislators/page/0/5|title=The Ten Best (And, Sigh, The Ten Worst) Legislators|publisher=texasmonthly.com|date=July 1973|accessdate=June 29, 2015}}</ref> By 1974, Cates was residing in Shamrock in Wheeler County for his third and fourth terms in the legislature. When he was moved to District 66 with the 1972 election, only Gray and Wheeler Counties were held over from his original District 79.<ref name=tlrl/>
After his four legislative terms, Cates became a lobbyist and worked in the capital city of [[Austin]], first, with former House Speaker Byron Tunnell from 1980 to 1989. He was a lobbyist for Tenneco of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] for nine years in nine southeastern states. In Austin in 1989 and 1990, he was a lobbyist for the Texas Association of Business. In 1991, he joined the firm of former Speaker Bill W. Clayton, at which he remained until 1996, when he opened his own firm, Texas Stakeholders. He remained in that capacity until his death of [[lung cancer]]<ref name=pampaarticle/> in 2014 at the age of 67.<ref name=tsc>{{cite web|url=http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?pers_id=9970|title=Phil Cates|publisher=cemetery.state.tx.us|accessdate=June 29, 2015}}</ref>
Cates, who had resided in Dripping Springs in Hays County near Austin, is interred at Texas State Cemetery in Austin, where graveside services were held on July 26, 2014, with his former legislative colleague Max Sherman among the speakers.<ref name=tsc/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cates, Phil}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Lobbyists]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:State Representatives]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Southern Baptists]]