People often kid Sue Bates, Artsci’91, that she has “tricolour" blood. She laughs about it, but the Volunteer President of the Queen’s University Alumni Association (QUAA) has a connection to the school that reaches far back, as she puts it, “to before day one” – her parents met at Queen’s.
Bates’ mother, “loved Queen’s, loved the Gaels.” It is in memory of her mother, Katherine Bates, Arts’60, that Bates plans to donate to Queen’s in her will.
Upon graduation in 1991, Bates moved to Scotland where she acted as a Queen’s alumni contact for several years. She then went on to the Bahamas, followed by the Turks and Caicos Islands, where she continued to play a part in the local alumni association. (“Just five of us,” she laughs, “it wasn’t very formal.”). After moving back to Kingston 11 years ago, Bates became even more involved, serving as president of the Kingston Branch of the QUAA, and as a university councillor, devoting up to fifteen hours a week to Queen’s.
Today, she is very honoured to be Volunteer President of the QUAA, serving the entire Queen’s alumni community across the globe. “Basically, if Queen’s asks, the answer is always yes.” Bates also chooses to support Queen’s financially. She supports the QUAA’s Special Projects Fund, and the Chaplain’s Fund (“for kids in need who have nowhere else to turn”) among many other areas of the university. And of course, there is her planned legacy in commemoration of her mother, Katherine.
“Queen’s has given me so much. When I thought about where my bequest should go, there wasn’t any question.”
