 He died of cancer on December 11, 2007, at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the age of 57.In 2017, a recently discovered species of the Oligoryzomys genus (O. yatesi) was named after him as an homage for his "important contribution to the Chilean mammalogy research".In 2014, a new species of subterranean rodent from South America was named after Dr. Yates which is called Yates's tuco-tuco, "Ctenomys yatesi" Gardner et al., 2014