Bernadette Coates

Family Role: Matriarch, partner, and lifelong companion providing the foundation of family strength, stability, and values.

A Partnership Spanning Decades

Married since 1959, Bernadette and George have shared a partnership spanning more than six decades. This enduring commitment has provided the personal stability essential for George to pursue his ambitious technical vision and for the family to support multiple businesses and ventures.

Long-term partnerships of this caliber are rare in modern life, representing a deep commitment to shared purpose and family values that transcends individual achievement.

The Support System Behind Innovation

While George's name is associated with the major technical breakthroughs, Bernadette provided the essential support system that made such achievement possible:

Emotional Support: Steadfast encouragement through challenges and disappointments inherent in pursuing breakthrough innovation
Family Stability: Creating a home environment that allowed George and children to thrive
Logistics & Management: Managing household and family operations, freeing George to focus on technical work
Counsel & Perspective: Providing wise counsel and balanced perspective on major decisions
Values Transmission: Instilling the family values of excellence, integrity, and service in children
Social & Community: Managing social relationships and community connections

The Importance of Family Foundation

Modern society often focuses on individual achievement, overlooking the essential role of family stability and support in enabling that achievement. Behind every innovator, entrepreneur, and leader, there is typically a strong family foundation—someone or often multiple people providing the emotional, logistical, and moral support necessary for sustained excellence.

Bernadette represents this essential, often unsung role. Without her partnership and commitment, the Coates family's achievements would not have been possible.

The Family Legacy Continuing

Bernadette's impact extends through five children who have themselves achieved excellence across different fields—engineering, law, music, accounting, and education. The values she helped instill, combined with the example of commitment to excellence she demonstrated alongside George, have shaped a family culture of high achievement and service.

In this way, Bernadette's influence multiplies across generations, affecting not only her immediate family but the broader impact the Coates family has on engineering, business, and community.

Lessons in Commitment & Partnership

In an era of shorter marriages and transient relationships, Bernadette and George's 60+ year partnership offers profound lessons about the value of long-term commitment, shared purpose, and genuine partnership. Their relationship demonstrates that sustaining commitment over decades requires more than romantic attraction—it requires shared values, mutual respect, complementary strengths, and commitment to something larger than individual interests.

The Matriarch's Legacy

Bernadette's legacy is not measured in patents or engineering awards, but in the strength, values, and achievements of her family and the countless ways she has influenced the lives of those around her. She embodies the truth that some of life's most important contributions happen quietly, without public recognition—yet their impact is profound and lasting.