March 18, 2016

The Board of Directors and staff of the Guttmacher Institute mourn the passing of our former Board member Dr. Willard (“Ward”) Cates, Jr., who passed away on March 17 at age 73. Ward served on Guttmacher’s Board of Directors from 2005 to 2011, and was also a member of the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Post-2015 World. He was a brilliant researcher whose distinguished career focused on HIV transmission, family planning and epidemiology. Our staff and Board members remember Ward as a profoundly generous man whose advice, insight and friendship were deeply valued. He was a beloved mentor to many reproductive health researchers, and his academic rigor and deep commitment to gender equity and women’s rights continue to serve as a model and inspiration for the Institute’s work. 

Dr. Cates spent over two decades at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he served as Chief of the Abortion Surveillance Branch from 1975 to 1982, and later as Director of the Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. He spent the remainder of his career at Family Health International (now FHI 360), where he most recently served as President and CEO of the Institute for Family Health and President Emeritus of Research. He coauthored eight editions of Contraceptive Technology, a widely used family planning textbook, and also taught as an adjunct professor at several top universities across the United States. Ward’s pioneering research, prolific and multifaceted career, and kindness of spirit will leave a lasting legacy at the Guttmacher Institute and in the field of sexual and reproductive health. We are honored to have had Ward as a beloved member of our community.

As one of his final acts of generosity, Ward requested that donations in his memory be made to the Guttmacher Institute. If you would like to make a gift to honor his legacy, you may do so through our honorary gift page.