Robert Gates offers food for thought at Helping Hands benefit

He has led the C.I.A., the U.S. Defense Department and two major universities, but 77-year-old Robert Gates, now of Big Lake, received his best management training as a Boy Scout.

“When I was 14,” Gates recalled at a special leadership seminar benefitting Helping Hands Food Bank at the Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon Saturday night, “I had to get boys 11, 12 and 13-years-old to follow directions when they didn’t necessarily want to.”

Gates found a way. And it led to a career in which he has made crucial decisions on the world stage.

Now, in retirement, his focus is local.

Gates told his audien...