Bill Gates Sr., father of Microsoft co-founder, dies at 94
SEATTLE (AP) — William H. Gates II, a
lawyer and philanthropist best known as the father of Microsoft
co-founder Bill Gates, has died at 94.
Gates died peacefully Monday at his beach home in Washington state from Alzheimer's disease, the family announced Tuesday.
In
an obituary the family credited the patriarch with a “deep commitment
to social and economic equity,” noting that he was responsible for the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's first efforts to improve global
health as well as his advocacy for progressive taxation, especially
unsuccessful efforts to pass a state income tax on the wealthy in
Washington.
“My dad’s wisdom, generosity, empathy, and humility had a huge influence on people around the world,” Bill Gates wrote in a tribute.
Born
in 1925, Gates Sr. grew up in Bremerton, Washington, where his parents
owned a furniture store. He joined the Army following his freshman year
at the University of Washington and was en route to Japan when it
surrendered in 1945.
He served a
year in war-torn Tokyo before returning to the United States and
resuming his education, his family said. After earning his law degree in
1950, he began working in private practice and as a part-time Bremerton
city attorney.
He formed a
Seattle law firm with two other partners that eventually became Preston
Gates and Ellis — now known as K & L Gates, one of the world's
largest law firms. The firm was one of the first to work with the
region's technology industry.
Gates Sr. met his first wife, Mary
Maxwell, at the University of Washington. They had two daughters and a
son — Gates Jr. — and remained married until her death in 1994. Two
years later he married Mimi Gardner, then the director of the Seattle
Art Museum, with whom he spent the last quarter-century of his life.
“When
I was a kid, he wasn’t prescriptive or domineering, and yet he never
let me coast along at things I was good at, and he always pushed me to
try things I hated or didn’t think I could do (swimming and soccer, for
example),” Gates Jr. wrote in the tribute. “And he modeled an amazing
work ethic. He was one of the hardest-working and most respected lawyers
in Seattle, as well as a major civic leader in our region.”
That
civic work included serving as a trustee of the Greater Seattle Chamber
of Commerce, Planned Parenthood and United Way. He also served as the
president of the state and local bar associations and in the leadership
of the American Bar Association, helping create diversity scholarships
and promoting legal services for the poor.
Gates
Sr. was a towering figure by reputation and in person — he stood
6-foot-7 (2 meters) tall — and his counsel was often sought. Former
Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz has said
that when he was struggling to raise the money to buy the six-store
coffee chain in 1987, Gates Sr. stepped in to rescue him from a rival
buyer — not only by investing, but by personally taking Schultz to visit
the rival, demanding as he loomed over the rival's desk: “You are going
to stand down and this kid is going to realize his dream. Do you
understand me?”
Gates retired from law in 1998 and took on prominent roles with the Gates Foundation, helping launch its work in global health.
The family said that due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a memorial service would be held later.
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