Jack Ellsworth Bates

Jack Ellsworth Bates was a member of the United States Marine Corps from 1945 through 1946. PFC Bates was scheduled for the Pacific Theater when the war ended. PFC Bates was discharged from the Marines in 1946. Like many veterans of World War II, Jack enrolled in college under the GI Bill. He graduated from Michigan State University and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps in December 1950. He served during the Korean Conflict as a platoon leader in a field service platoon in the 3rd Infantry Division. His awards include the Bronze Star, the Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal.

Jack has spent 45 years in the life insurance business where he started as an agent and progressed to the owner of his own agency, Future Financial Planners Inc. He received numerous insurance sales awards. He was president of Lansing Life Underwriters in 1979 and received its Distinguished Service Award in 1982. Jack served the community through his church, as a president and volunteer of the YMCA, United Way, and president and secretary of the Lansing Rotary Club. He and his wife, Margaret, of fifty-one years have three children and eight grandchildren.

Jack credits his success in business, civic, and personal life to the discipline, and leadership training of the United States Marine Corps, Michigan State University’s Army ROTC, and the United States Army.

In recognition of the great credit his exemplary service, superior leadership, and dedication to duty has brought to Michigan State University and the United States Army, Jack Ellsworth Bates is inducted into the MSU Army ROTC Hall of Fame, this sixth day of May two thousand, in the one hundred fifteenth year of Military Science at MSU.