Longtime Imperial Beach Resident Orran Coates Passes Away

Orran P. Coates passed away at the age of 86 on March 13, 2011, after a two-year struggle with pulmonary fibrosis. Although Coates has passed, his legacy will continue to be lived out in Imperial Beach, a city he had called home since the 1960s. 

Hanging on a wall at the Scoreboard Sports Grill is a popular picture of Coates sitting in the back of a fishing boat. There is also a plaque that accompanies the photo with his trademark line: “It’s 5:00 somewhere,” as he often would say when he popped open a beer.

Further carrying out his legacy in Imperial Beach is his son, Jim Coates, who resides in Imperial Beach and works for the city.

Coates was born in Bellflower, CA, on Dec. 29, 1924. When Coates got older, he moved to Florida and became a police officer. When it was time to start a family, Coates and his wife packed up their bags and made the trek out west to Imperial Beach.

“My mom and Dad both liked that it was just a small little beach community, and they liked it and bought a house there,” said Mary Wyckoff, Coates’ youngest daughter.

Coates may have loved Imperial Beach, but it was the community of Coronado that he protected and served for about 20 years as a police officer. He had to start his career over from Florida. Wyckoff said Coates had been a sergeant when he came to work in Coronado but he had to start at the bottom again and worked his way up to lieutenant of the Coronado Police Department when he retired in 1980.

At one point in his police career, Wyckoff said Coates was the most educated police officer in California.

“For my whole entire life, my dad never quit going to school,” said Wyckoff.

“He has countless certificates and awards and was invited twice to go to the FBI academy but couldn’t do it because he had all of us kids to take care of.”

Wyckoff said one of the stories her father told her about his police work was when he arrested a jewel thief in Florida and some years later arrested the same jewel thief in Coronado.

During World War II, Coates served in the U.S. Army as a medical corpsman. It was in the service where he met his wife of 33 years.

Coates’ wife died of cancer in 1980 around Coates’ retirement date from the Coronado Police Department. Coates retired as a police officer to take care of her, and he had planned to travel with her but she became too sick.

When Coates was initially diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis two years ago, he kept his illness to himself and did not tell anyone. It wasn’t until his health was starting to get really bad that his family learned of his illness. Wyckoff said her father never complained in life and that this was the way he wanted it.

“I feel it was handled the way my dad wanted it to be handled,” she said. “He also chose to try and see the positive side of things.”

Coates’ ashes are to be buried in Riverside at the military base at a later date. He is survived by all six of his children.