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Dad taught what integrity in business means, Yates says.

Article Excerpt
W. G. "Bill" Yates Jr., Chairman, President and CEO, The Yates Companies, Inc., in Philadelphia.

Most people know Bill Yates as the consummate builder.

But few people realize the professional engineer also has a law degree, is a member of The Mississippi Bar and received the Army Commendation Award for outstanding performance as a captain in the U.S. Army serving in Europe.

Even fewer folks know that Yates was not a natural-born leader, and his foray into the construction business was much less pragmatic than it sounds.

"My first couple of years at Ole Miss, I didn't know what leadership was," admitted Yates, who graduated from Philadelphia High School in 1959 and earned a civil engineering degree in 1963 and a law degree in 1965 from the University of Mississippi. "And I was afraid, nervous ... but I found engineering to be tough and I had to study hard. I ran for the Senate that first semester and got beat, and then I no longer cared about being any sort of leader. I just wanted to see if I could get through the classes. I think perhaps my ROTC involvement helped me become a leader, and certainly as I moved into the Army, whatever leadership skills I had were improved."

During his sophomore year of college, his dad, William "Gully" Yates, then co-owner of a small construction company, showed up on campus one day during the middle of the week with a proposition: "'Son, there's a little remodeling job here that they are taking bids...

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