Robert Thomas Tate Jr. died of natural causes at his ranch in Sheridan, Wyoming, on December 23, 2002.  Bob was born July 8th, 1916, to Robert and Erma Tate near Hulett, Wyoming.  His mother's parents, Jeremiah and Belle Bush, were the first pioneer settlers of the Devils Tower area.

The Tate family moved to Sheridan in 1925, in team drawn wagons and with a herd of 60 horses.  His father raised and sold horses to the Army remount and as polo prospects.  Bob attended Linden School and Sheridan High School.  When he was 16 he began buying and selling horses and by the mid 1930s he had developed a reputation as a superior horseman.  He trained and traded race horses, rode as a jockey, and roped calves in the county race meets and fairs.

When war began in 1941, Bob joined the Marine Corps but failed their physical because of a broken hip suffered when bucked off a horse.  The Army accepted him for service in 1942.  He served in the Remount Division of the Quartermaster Corps.  He spent the war years in India and Burma packing supplies on mules over the Burma Road to Merrill's Marauders who were fighting the Japanese in Northern Burma and China.  Later he transferred to New Delhi where he trained officer's mounts and Polo ponies.  His discharge papers at war's end described his military occupation specialty as 093, "Horse Trainer".  Following the war he moved briefly to his parent's Ranch at Otter Creek, Montana where he began selling horses to Polo players in the east he had met through his connections in the Army.

It was at Otter Creek that he met Aileen Hagen whom he married in 1947.  By 1951 they had four children and were living on the Lyon Creek Ranch of Aileen's father.  They moved to their ranch in Sheridan in 1955.  On the "Wymont Ranch" he traded horses and with four thoroughbred studs and as many as 40 thoroughbred mares, he produced foals which he sold as Polo pony prospects, Hunters and Jumpers and Steeple Chase horses.  Over the years he sold thousands of horses, many of them to the best Polo players in America who came to the ranch each year to buy them.  He loved to drive with his favorite customers to the back roads of  Wyoming and Montana looking for horses.  He developed a reputation as an extraordinary horseman and in 1996 he was inducted into the International Livestock Congress Hall of Fame in Houston, Texas, in recognition of his lifetime contribution in producing and selling Polo ponies and Sporting Event horses.

To his children he was a dedicated and loving father who was devoted to each of them to the end of his life.

Bob considered himself to be very fortunate and often times remarked that, "We should count our blessings."  Life had in fact been good to him.  It could be said without much exaggeration that he managed to live his life pretty much on his terms.

In the later years of his life he loved to irrigate his ranch in the summer and watch college basketball on TV in the winter.  He loved Horse racing, Polo, his granddaughter's sporting and theater events, and telling stories about the history of the horse world in Wyoming and Montana from his unique perspective as one of the Premier Horseman of his time.

Bob was preceded in death by his wife, Aileen, his parents and sisters, Naomi Thompson and Jerry Belle Allen.  He is survived by his children:  Tom (Susan), Mimi (Jim), Richard (Alex), Hardy (Patrice), his granddaughter, Martha and step-grandchildren Amy and Audrey.

At his request there will be no funeral.  A gathering of family and friends to celebrate his life will be held at a later date.

Arrangements are with Champion Ferries Funeral Home.