Charles K. Coates

Charles K. Coates, college professor, journalist, Emmy-winning television producer, and artist, died on February 3 in Manhattan. He was 89.

A native of New Jersey, he had lived in New York, Tennessee, New Mexico, and North Carolina before returning to Manhattan in 2004.

Mr. Coates was a professor of journalism at the University of New Mexico for 25 years, beginning in 1972. In 1979, he was a driving force of an investigation into NCAA rule violations at UNM’s basketball program, locally known as Lobogate, which led to extensive reforms in the university athletic department. As a result, he was honored by his students as "professor of the semester," and later served on the UNM Athletic Council.

He retired to Southern Shores, NC, in 1997. Seven years later he moved to New York and pursued a third career as a painter at the Art Students League.

Mr. Coates was born in Orange, NJ, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia in 1951, after which he served in the army in Germany.

Returning to the U.S., he worked briefly for W.R. Grace in New York, before joining the Nashville Tennessean as a reporter in 1957. At the Tennessean, he was known for his coverage of the nascent civil rights movement. In Nashville, he married Elinor Lindsay. She predeceased him in 2002. In 1961, he joined NBC News in New York. His credits as a producer included the Sixth Hour News, the HuntleyBrinkley Report and NBC Nightly News.

He is survived by Lois Moran of New York, his beloved companion for the last 16 years; two daughters, Elinor Andrews Coates of Durham, NC, and Lindsay Kudner Coates of Washington, D.C., a son, Charles Wiley Coates of Avondale Estates, GA., and six grandchildren.