William Coates

Who was William Coates?

William Coates of Maryland was an unverified claimant as a supercentenarian whose actual age was subsequently disputed. Following his death, news reports said Coates was believed to have been the oldest man in the United States at 114 years old, based upon his nursing home records. The reports noted there was no birth certificate. If the claim was correct, Coates would have been the world's oldest person after the death of Mitoyo Kawate and its oldest man after the death of Yukichi Chuganji.

In March 2004, one week after Coates' death, the Gerontology Research Group reported that a register of Wiiliam J. Coates with his parents and siblings in the 1930 United States census listed his age as 18 years old. The census data would mean that Coates was 92 at the time of his death.