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March 2000: Vol. 79, No. 2

A Man for All Seasons

by Patrick Dean
It's been 20 years since Dean William Tate died, but his legend lives on.

Bill Tate ran track as a freshman at UGA in 1920, and set a Southern AAU record in the 2-mile run.
When students ran into money problems, they knew who to turn to for an emergency loan.
The most enduring image of Dean Tate: confiscating ID cards from ne'er-do-wells.

Even extreme dorm pranks were no challenge for the Dean of Men's animal husbandry skills.
To calm anti-war protesters, Dean Tate donned love beads and sat in on the sit-in.
Frat party revelers so feared Dean Tate's midnight raids that some dived out windows.

To diffuse racial tensions in '61, Dean Tate drove Hunter and Holmes home to Atlanta.
If the occasion called for something zany—like a man popping out of a cake—Tate was game.
For Tate's retirement in '71—a half-century after he started at UGA—alums gave him a car.


Bill Tate ran track as a freshman at UGA in 1920, and set a Southern AAU record in the 2-mile run.	When students ran into money problems, they knew who to turn to for an emergency loan.	The most enduring image of Dean Tate: confiscating ID cards from ne'er-do-wells.

Even extreme dorm pranks were no challenge for the Dean of Men's animal husbandry skills.	To calm anti-war protesters, Dean Tate donned love beads and sat in on the sit-in.	Frat party revelers so feared Dean Tate's midnight raids that some dived out windows.

To diffuse racial tensions in '61, Dean Tate drove Hunter and Holmes home to Atlanta.	If the occasion called for something zany—like a man popping out of a cake—Tate was game.	For Tate's retirement in '71—a half-century after he started at UGA—alums gave him a car.