Carlton Albert Bates died December 12, 2022, in Palm Springs, California, at age 74. The cause was cancer. He was born on April 15, 1949, in Morristown, New Jersey, to Louise Getman (Bates) Bristol and Douglas P. Bates. Carl's father died when he was 12, and two years later his mother married John W. Bristol, who became his stepfather.
Carl grew up in New Jersey and attended the Hill School in Pottstown, PA, where he excelled in academics and athletics, particularly on the lacrosse field. His talents took him to Yale University, where he earned All-Ivy honors in lacrosse and graduated with a BA in Art History in 1971.
After college, Carl worked as a builder, musician, and painter. Wearing silver body paint and a cape, he was the bass player for a rock band that once opened for Frank Zappa, though unfortunately they were booed off stage. In 1974, he joined a growing community of artists, architects and free spirits on Prickly Mountain in Warren, Vermont, as they embarked on innovative experiments in sustainable architecture, green technology, community planning, and what would come to be called the Design-Build movement. It was there that he made many lifelong friends, including John and Deborah Barkhausen, Christine Goulet, Neal Harrington, Pierre and Mary Moffroid, Jim and Ellen Sanford, Dave Sellers, and Bill Wadsworth, among others.
While building his own house on Prickly Mountain entirely from stone, Carl spent half of each year on a remote farm in Vara Blanca, Costa Rica, where he worked on his paintings. His work was shown in exhibitions in New York and Washington, DC, as well as the Segunda Exposicion de la Nueva Pintura de Costa Rica at the Museo Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica. In 2019, he had a solo exhibition at the Madsonian Museum in Waitsfield, Vermont. Most recently, his work was included in a group show, “Depicting Duchamp: Portraits of Marcel Duchamp and/or Rrose Sélavy,” at the Francis Nauman Gallery in New York in 2020. Also included in the show was a work by his daughter, the artist Larissa Bates.
It was in Costa Rica that Carl met his first wife, the late Patricia del Carmen Gutierrez y Chittenden. Patricia’s sons Juan and Sebastian, became Carl’s beloved stepsons. Carl and Patricia were married in 1980, and welcomed their daughter Larissa in 1981. Tragically, Patricia died of cancer later that same year.
In 1987, while performing in Warren in a Phantom Theater production, “Air Brains,” Carl met Tracy Martin, a dancer and actress from New York. They were married in 1989, and welcomed a son, Lucas, in 1992. Around this time, Carl launched his own stone masonry business, Pharoah Stonework; at times his employees included his son Lucas and nephew Rufus. He also worked for many years as a snowplow driver on Prickly Mountain, and wrote an unpublished novel based on his experiences, “The Plowman Chronicles.”
Carl and Tracy were divorced in 1994. In 1995, Carl became life partners with the architect Lourie Savage Campbell and stepfather to her son, Spencer, whom he adored. Carl and Lourie were married in 2005. After retiring in 2010, they began living half the year in Palm Springs, California. Lourie was a loving and devoted partner to Carl, and provided extraordinary compassion and care for him during his years of illness. In Palm Springs, Carl continued his painting, took up biking and hiking through the desert canyons, and enjoyed pursuing two lifelong passions, bird watching and golfing. He also closely followed Yale’s lacrosse team and became an active participant on their online message boards. His passion for life, his booming laugh, and his characteristically optimistic outlook on his future never wavered despite his illness. The loving care he received from his wife, Lourie, along with the love of his large circle of family and friends, was surely a reason for his invincible positivity.
Carl is survived by his wife, Lourie Savage Campbell, his daughter, Larissa Bates (David), his son, Lucas Bates, stepsons Juan Carlos Brenes (Carolyn), Sebastian Brenes (Kathy), and Spencer Campbell (Laura), his sister, Louise Bates Satterfield (Calvin), his brother, William S. Bates, and two stepsisters, Barbara Bristol, and Nancy Homer (Stephen), as well as his grandchildren Emilia, Ana Lucia, Louise, Grace, Jack, Pilar, and Sebastian. He was predeceased by his older brother, Douglas P. Bates Jr. and his mother Louise.
A private family service will be held this summer in the Mad River Valley, followed by a gathering at The Temple of Dindor on July 8, 2023.
