Lt. Ward B. Bates was born on February 17, 1895, in Yankton, South Dakota. His father, Charles Homer Bates, served as a U.S. Deputy Surveyor and conducted boundary surveys between South Dakota and North Dakota from 1891 to 1892. Bates attended the State University of Iowa in Iowa City.

He enlisted in the Army National Guard on December 1, 1912, and was honorably discharged on December 1, 1915. With the onset of World War I, Bates re-enlisted and was commissioned as a second lieutenant of field artillery on August 15, 1917. He served in the American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.) in Europe and traveled across the United States with other newly commissioned officers during his training and assignments. He was honorably discharged on August 1, 1919.

Following the war, Bates moved to California, where he met and married Eunice Morey Wolcott. They had one daughter, Nancy Farley. Ward B. Bates died on October 21, 1946.