He's pleased, but he's not surprised. Your son has been a source of inspiration for countless of people. The house is huge (9,000 square feet) and grand, still sparsely furnished - except for the daughters' rooms, which are decked out with bright frills and posters of teen-age idols.At the top of a sweeping staircase, Gates pauses in front of a cluster of photographs to trace his ancestry back to a sepia-tint portrait of Jane Gates, midwife and former slave.PIEDMONT, WEST VIRGINIA , a small town two hours west of Washington, lives off its papermill. Although dependent on their goodwill and on that of the administration, these programs have maintained a considerable degree of autonomy on some campuses; there are also a few full-fledged departments, notably at Cornell, the University of Wisconsin and Harvard University. The fact that he is visible in the media reinforces his desirability within the universities, who know that if they have captured Skip Gates they have captured attention.''

May God bless and keep your family.Our prays are with you and your family, I understand losing a parent but you know he is in a better place and with his beloved wife. Although many of Gates's projects excite controversy, nothing provokes so much pointed criticism as his evident glee at being a highflier. Gates, who is often described as a one-man industry and an institution builder, may well be part of the answer.THE NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER, SKIP GATES'S TEMPORARY headquarters (he still commutes up to Cornell once a week), is tucked away in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, an eerie, manicured wilderness.

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Henry served in the United States Army during World War II, rising to the rank of sergeant, and was nearly twenty-eight years old when he enlisted in 1941. A Cornell colleague, Jonathan Culler, argues that Gates is much sought-after for three reasons: because his work is first-rate, because of his institutional prowess and because ''desire is always mediated desire. At campuses across the country, students have been demanding a new cultural pluralism - greater diversity in the courses offered and in the professors hired to teach them. Stanley Fish, who as chairman of Duke's English department was largely responsible for recruiting Gates, believes that ''entrepreneurial P. T. Barnumism'' is one of the keys to his success.
He adds that ''academics believe that one sign of their worth is the degree to which society fails to reward them. And the example of a community of successful black scholars may eventually feed more blacks into the pipeline to graduate studies and a university career.From Cornell, home of a well-established black studies center, Gates is supposed to move permanently to Duke, where black studies have been moribund for the last decade. The Shepperson Family Atlanta Georgia (He proposed, for example, that the dazzling gold chains so important to Mr. T's ''A-Team'' costume carry ''a subliminal suggestion of bondage.'') Proponents of autonomous black studies programs, Gates among them, reply that all disciplines have institutional histories - they are artificial, even arbitrary constructs that serve a need. In this competitive climate, scholars have shown their willingness to dangle an outside offer in the hope that the home institution will match it - if not, they move on. Well done good and faithful servant.

''I was called 'nigger' so often I thought I had a sign stenciled on my back.'' Embarrassed by his own eagerness, he retreated to his apartment; proof of his good fortune arrived soon thereafter.Nine years later, ''Skip'' Gates, as he is known to more people than seems possible for a 39-year-old academic, is quite used to awards, honors and the delicious sense of being wanted.
Gates says he makes ''good pay, but not six figures. In the late 1960's, he started dating a young white woman; helped force the closing of the Blue Jay restaurant in nearby Keyser, which held segregated Saturday night dances; became, as he puts it, ''the voice of civil rights in Piedmont,'' and was rewarded with the No. ''I was up there visiting,'' says Gates, who won't discuss the English department's vote but is unable to conceal his enthusiasm, ''and the President, Harold Shapiro, came over to me at this party they had for me and said, 'We want to start a graduate program in African-American studies' - I think they can do it, with or without me.