Eleanor Bates Media Center opens at Lincoln Elementary

WARREN — For anyone who attended Van Dyke Public Schools, you probably ran into Eleanor Bates at one time or another.

She’s the friendly, petite lady on the Van Dyke Public Schools Board of Education who is always smiling and always promoting the district and the city of Warren with a positive attitude.

When Bates, 95, decided not to run for another school board term this year, the school board wanted to leave a legacy on her behalf. It was a way to honor the lifelong Warren resident who has been the cheering section for the district for decades.

In October, the school board voted to name the media center at Lincoln Elementary the Eleanor Bates Media Center. Bates was first elected to the school board in 2005 and served for 17 years.

On the evening of Nov. 30, staff and Lincoln families gathered at the school to dedicate the media center. Several of Bates’ family members, including her children and sister, attended as well.

“Van Dyke has always been very important in our lives. Our social life revolved around high school,” Bates said. “The good Lord has blessed me.”

Before the dedication ceremony began, the student council led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. The school’s chorus also sang “America the Beautiful.”

“Thank you all for being here. We are celebrating this wonderful lady,” district Superintendent Piper Bognar said as the ceremony began. “As you can see in this room, she’s loved by all. She has been a presence in Van Dyke Public Schools and in the city of Warren for many, many years.”

Eleanor Puzzuoli attended Lincoln Elementary and Lincoln Junior High School. She graduated from Lincoln High School in January 1946. She was so well-liked among her classmates she was voted homecoming queen.

After high school, Eleanor Puzzuoli married Ted Bates, who eventually became the mayor of Warren for many years. Together, they raised five children who all went through the Van Dyke Public Schools system.

She was always visible in the schools. She worked as an elementary building secretary and founded the Parent Teacher Association. Bates was very involved with the Lincoln High School Alumni Association. Years back, she also served on the Warren City Council and worked with the Van Dyke Public Schools Foundation for Educational Excellence. She also has helped to promote the Warren Symphony Orchestra over the years.

“She’s always risen to the occasion, no matter what that occasion happened to be. From the time Eleanor was a small child, born right across the street from where she currently lives, right in this very neighborhood, she has made an impact. She’s an Abe through and through,” Bognar said. “Although we’ll miss her terribly, we know she’s got other things to do. Let’s take a look at her family and friends in this room. She wants to spend more time with all of you.

According to Bognar, the Eleanor Bates Media Center “reiterates her love of books, literacy, children and learning in Van Dyke Public Schools.”

 

‘She was always a peacemaker’
In 1967, when Ted Bates was elected Warren mayor, Eleanor was by his side as first lady of the city. Warren Mayor James Fouts reflected on that last week. He compared Bates to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“Eleanor Roosevelt was the first lady of the United States. I continue to think of you as the first lady of Warren,” Fouts said. “They both started with Eleanor and they both ended with class and volunteerism. I’ll just say this: Volunteerism is what we try to get everybody to do in our city. It boosts everybody up. Eleanor is the queen of volunteerism.”

Fouts has known Bates for over 30 years.

“I got to know Eleanor when she was elected to council back in ’91. She always had class. She was always a peacemaker. She was always the person that would say, ‘Let’s try to work together,’” Fouts said. “Eleanor, I salute you, and I commend the Van Dyke school district for knowing you would be the perfect person to have a (library) named after you.”   

When plans were being made to name the library in Bates’ honor, Board President Mark Kedzior wrote up several remarks that were read at a school board meeting this fall. He first met Bates at a Van Dyke Area PTA Council meeting/Founder’s Day banquet. She was running for Warren City Council and passed out emery boards that read “Elect Eleanor H. Bates — Warren City Council.”

As Kedzior got to know Bates, he knew that “whenever I needed some history on PTA and anything about the history of Van Dyke Public Schools, I was always referred to Eleanor to get that information.”

He also remembered her luncheon when she retired as Harding Elementary’s secretary.

“Before she left her employ, I was graciously invited to lunch with her and Brenda Winter, a Lincoln graduate of 1972,” according to Kedzior. “We had a wonderful time. I learned more about her years in Van Dyke.”

That included stories of what Van Dyke Avenue looked like in the 1940s, the United Service Organizations Inc. building on Federal Avenue and the building of a new Lincoln High School in 1953.

At the end of the ceremony, Bognar unveiled a painted portrait of Bates done by artist Emad Tammo of Creative Odyssey.

“It was made from a picture of Mrs. Bates that will hang in the hallway above the showcase,” Bognar said.