Background
Josef Kates was the son of Baruch (Bernard) and Anna Katz (née Entenberg). He married Lillian Kroch (deceased), and then Mary K. Hill. His children were Louis, Naomi, Celina and Philip A. Kates arrived in Canada in 1940. He lived for a short time in New Brunswick and Quebec (1940–1942), before settling in Toronto (1942–present).
He was educated at Goethe-Realschule (Vienna: 1931 - 1938); McGill University (Montreal: 1941, junior and senior matriculation); University of Toronto (Toronto: 1944 - 1948, Honours in Mathematics and Physics; 1948 - 1949: M.A. in Applied Math; 1949 - 1951: Ph.D. in Physics).
He started his career working for the Imperial Optical Company of Toronto in 1942, and was in charge of precision optics for Royal Canadian Navy equipment until he left in 1944. He then spent time working for Rogers Vacuum Tube Company, (now Royal Philips Electronics), for the next 4 years in the development and manufacturing of radar and radio tubes. This background gave him a solid foundation on which to pursue his work in 1948 at the University of Toronto, Computation Centre where he participated in the design and building of UTEC the first pilot model of a computer built in Canada. Dr. Kates also built the first digital game playing machine ("Bertie the Brain") which was exhibited at the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition and which used a special electron tube of his own design, the Additron Tube. He also designed Toronto's automated traffic signalling system in 1954 - the first in the world.
He went on to found and become the President of KCS Ltd in Toronto between 1954 and 1966, which merged with the consulting arm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. to become Kates, Peat, Marwick & Co. in Canada, with other corporations in the US and the UK, for which he acted as a co-managing partner. He served as a computer consultant to numerous Canadian and American firms and organizations. He was involved in the creation of Setak Computer Services Corp. Ltd. (his last name spelled backwards) which was based in Toronto. It offered computer access and consulting based on Burroughs computers, e.g. the B5500. In 1974 he founded Josef Kates Associates Inc., for which he acted as president.
In 1975 he acted as chairman of the now defunct, Science Council of Canada in Ottawa for 3 years, having served on the council since 1968. Other positions as chairman, CEO and Director of companies such as Teleride Sage Ltd. (1977–1996), and IRD Teleride (1996–1997) followed until his retirement.
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