Guy P. Yates, professor emeritus of speech communication at West Texas A&M University and one of four inaugural members of WT’s Communication Hall of Fame, passed away on Feb. 3 at the age of 80.

Yates, considered an icon in the field of speech and debate, built the speech team at WT. When the team first started, there was no budget, so they traveled on very limited funds.

“I’m sure that a bunch of it actually came out of Guy’s pocket,” Connie McKee, Instructor of Communication Studies and Director of Forensics, said. “Eventually, he talked to student services and various deans and department heads, and they started getting funding.”

Yates established WT’s annual summer speech camp, which is one of the oldest in the state, and the camp is named in his honor. McKee said it was speech camp before it was cool to have a speech camp. Students would do anything they could to attend.

“Students would sell goats,” McKee said, “and the money they would get from selling their goats would be what they would come to camp on. They’ve made lots and lots of sacrifices to get to come to camp.”

A United States Air Force veteran, Yates taught at Bowie Jr. High and Caprock High School before teaching at WT for 31 years, according to his obituary by Brooks Funeral Directors in Canyon. You can click here to know more

McKee said there is no way of telling how many students he left his mark on. For Andy Justus, news anchor at KAMR-TV, Yates is the reason he attended WT in the first place.

Justus, who attended Yates’ speech camp every summer from his sophomore year in high school, planned on attending Wayland Baptist University in Plainview on a theatre and pastoral scholarship. One day while he was in the speech and theatre class at Boys Ranch High School, his teacher walked in and said he had a phone call.

“It was Guy,” Justus said. “He said, ‘Andrew, this is Guy Paul Yates. I just want you to know I’m looking forward to you coming to WT and being on the forensics team.”

Yates was very persistent in recruiting Justus, and by the fall, Justus was enrolled at WT. Yates talked him into it. Yates also played a huge role for McKee because she, like Justus, would not have come to WT if it weren’t for him.

“He offered me a debate scholarship back in the days when we used to have debate,” McKee. “It’s really important to carry on the tradition. I think it becomes more important to me because he was my speech coach. This was my speech team, so I want to make sure that I keep it in his honor and keep his legacy.”

Justus and McKee said Yates influenced so many lives. He truly loved people, and he went out of his way to take care of those he cared for, including his students. Justus and McKee, respectively, both recalled times in their lives when Yates was their rock. He helped McKee get through the death of both of her parents and even went with her to Clovis, N.M. to the funeral to help her through it all.

After graduating from WT in 1995, Justus found himself in St. Louis, Mo., facing a tough personal battle. Yates bought Justus a plane ticket to Amarillo because he knew he needed to be back home.

“He knew I was hurting, and he flew me back,” Justus said. “We were at Ruby Tequila’s on Paramount eating fajitas. There were talks and tears, and Guy—he loved people. My life is forever changed because of Guy Paul Yates.”

In the world of speech communication, Yates taught Justus to take control of the entire room, not just the stage, when competing, and that is something Justus continues to carry with him today in his professional career. As a first generation college student, Justus gives Yates all the credit and said he would not have graduated from WT if it weren’t for Guy P. Yates.

McKee reflected on what she learned from Yates as a professor, and she hopes to continue to pass along his legacy to her students in and outside of the classroom.

“I learned from Guy to always do what’s good for the students,” she said. “As a teacher, you put students first. Students count, and every student counts. Personally, Guy was always my rock. He was an interpersonal genius, and you just looked at Guy for all these interpersonal questions. If there was a problem, Guy could always solve [it].”

She hopes to pass on the importance of the speech team to her students. She said it isn’t about winning. It’s about communicating, having fun and growing as a person.

For Justus, Yates’ legacy of loving others is something to carry on.

“The most important thing I learned from Guy,” Justus said, “is if you love people, truly love people above all else, it is such an investment.”