Norman T. Gates, executive, scholar

A stockroom sorter. A business owner. An English professor and scholar. A poet. A gardener.

Norman T. Gates, 95, of Haddonfield, held those titles and more. And he remained active in scholarly work until a few days before he died.

Mr. Gates, a man who knew reinvention well and was never too old to excel in new passions, died of an aneurysm Saturday, April 17, at Marlton Rehabilitation Hospital.

He was born in New York City and moved with his family to a farm in Reading when he was about 5.

After graduating from Wyomissing High School in 1931, Mr. Gates enrolled at Dickinson College. His father was struggling financially after the stock market crash of 1929, and in 1932 Mr. Gates left college and started working at one of his father's candy stores.

In 1933, Mr. Gates married Gertrude Morre, and through some of her connections he landed a job at a Philadelphia paper-products company, his daughter Patricia A. Winder said.

He rose from working in the stockroom to running the paper-packaging division. In 1950, he took his innovative ideas, along with his entire division staff, to start N.T. Gates Co., a packaging-materials company in Pennsauken.

After much success, Mr. Gates rounded up partners to help run the business. In 1965, he felt the company could succeed without him, so he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania.

In nine years, he attained his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in English. Shortly afterward, Rider College hired him.

During his collegiate journey, Mr. Gates began writing poetry and became a fan of modern English writer Richard Aldington, who, some scholars said, had been ignored in the literature world.

Aldington "could be a scholar domain of his own," Rider English professor Jim Guimond said.

Focusing on a literary figure not many people were working on gave Mr. Gates the leisure to travel to France and sip fine wine while chatting with other scholars of Aldington's life and work.

He eventually published three books, all focusing on Aldington, and started the Richard Aldington Newsletter for the New Canterbury Literary Society.

In 1973, "he started with a hand-typed newsletter and would send it out," Rider English professor Judith Johnston said. Mr. Gates eventually transferred to a digital version, and at 95 was still editing the quarterly newsletter.

Though a scholar of 20th-century British literature, Mr. Gates taught a wide range of English courses. Before his retirement in 1984, he developed a course on World War I literature and history. Mr. Gates did not get a chance to teach it, the course is still being taught by Johnston.

Students and faculty loved him for his patience, knowledge, and kindness, those who worked with him said. In the 1970s, he received a Lindback Award for distinguished teaching.

After retirement, Mr. Gates enjoyed playing golf at the Tavistock Country Club, where he served as president for several years.

He also picked up on his wife's gardening and became a year-round gardener, planting seeds and keeping them in the basement until spring. After his wife died in 1999, he maintained a weekly online gardening blog.

The Old English garden takes up the entire backyard of his Haddonfield house, which Mr. Gates purchased in 1937, his daughter said.

The begonias and impatiens are in full bloom now.

In addition to his daughter Patricia, Mr. Gates is survived by a son, Norman E.; another daughter, Marilyn G. Hart; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, June 12.