Bill Gates Sr. Biography
Bill Gates Sr. was born on November 30, 1925 in Bremerton, Washington, USA as William Henry Gates II. He has been married to Mimi Gardner Gates since 1996. He was previously married to Mary Maxwell Gates.
Bill Gates Sr. Age
He was born on November 30, 1925, He is 94 years as of 2019
Bill Gates Sr. Wife
In 1951, he married Mary Maxwell Gates born 1929, whom he met at UW, and they remained married until her death in 1994.In 1996, Gates married his second wife Mimi Gardner Gates born 1943
Bill Gates Sr. Children
They had three children Bill Gates, Kristi Blake and Libby Armintrout,
Bill Gates Sr. Early life
Gates was born in 1925 in Bremerton, Washington, to William Henry Gates I or Sr. (1891-1969) and Lillian Elizabeth Rice (1891-1966); the couple had married in 1913. His father ran a small town furniture store. His paternal grandmother was German and his maternal grandmother was English. He was apparently the third William Henry Gates, despite being named the second.
He was an active member of a Boy Scout troop for several years, and earned the Eagle Scout Award in 1941. After graduating from Bremerton High School he enlisted in the United States Army, changing his name to William Gates Jr. to avoid the appearance of elitism. He served in the army for three years during World War II, and was honorably discharged in November 1946.
Bill Gates Sr. Career
Gates attended the University of Washington (UW) under the G.I. Bill, earning a B.A. in 1949 and a law degree in 1950. While at Washington he joined the Chi Psi Fraternity. He co-founded Shidler & King in 1964, which later became Preston Gates & Ellis LLP. He practiced with the firm until 1998, when it was merged into the firm now known as K&L Gates (with which Bill Gates Sr. is not affiliated).
Gates has served as president of both the Seattle/King County Bar Association and the Washington State Bar Association. He has also served on the boards of numerous Northwest organizations, including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, King County United Way and Planned Parenthood. In 1995, he founded the Technology Alliance whose mission is to expand technology-based employment in Washington.
In 1998, Gates retired from PGE. He served for fifteen years on the Board of Regents for the University of Washington, and is a co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which his son Bill and his daughter-in-law Melinda founded. He has served as a director for Costco Wholesale, a bulk retail corporation, since 2003. He is also a founding co-chair of the Pacific Health Summit.
Gates is co-author, with Chuck Collins, of the book Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes, a defense of the policies promoted by the estate tax.
William H. Gates Sr. serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.
Bill Gates Sr. Facebook
https://web.facebook.com/pages/William-H-Gates-Sr/104001156303361?rf=110722665616748&_rdc=1&_
Bill Gates Sr. Twitter
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Awards and recognition
- Awarded Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, to acknowledge his business and civic success at least 25 years after earning Eagle Scout rank
- President of Seattle-King County Bar Association, 1969-1970
- President of Washington State Bar Association, 1986-1986
- Recipient of University of Washington School of Law Distinguished Alumnus, 1991
- Recipient of American Judicature Society’s Herbert Harley Award, 1992
- Served on Board for Judicial Administration, Washington State Supreme Court, 1993-1995
- Served on Board of Regents, University of Washington, 1997-2012
- Inducted into American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2003
- William H. Gates Hall at UW’s School of Law was named for him in 2003
- Public Education Foundation speaker at Edmonds-Woodway, 2004
- Awarded Washington Medal of Merit, 2009
- Recipient of Chi Psi Fraternity’s Albert S. Bard Award, 2010, for contributions to the intellectual and cultural life of the community
How To Raise A Billionaire: An Interview With Bill Gates’ Father
What sot of child was Bill?
Just about every kind of book interested him–encyclopedias, science fiction, you name it. I was thrilled that my child was such an avid reader, but he read so much that Bill’s mother and I had to institute a rule: no books at the dinner table.
Did Bill ever talk about what he wanted to do or be when he grew up?
As part of a homework assignment in fifth grade, Bill had to fill out a form about what he wanted to be when he grew up. The form included a list of occupations – things like doctor, fireman and cowboy – with check boxes next to each. The expectation was that the student would pick one from the existing list. Although Bill did check the box for “astronaut,” he also drew in an additional box, checked it and wrote “scientist.” Growing up, he was very curious to know how the world worked, and he had his own thoughtful ideas about business, life, international affairs, and what the future might hold. At the time, it would have been hard for me to believe that the frequently argumentative boy across the dinner table would one day be my boss, but here we are.
When did he first get interested in computers?
Very early on. An opportunity came at his school when the mothers raised money to pay for a device that connected to a computer over the phone line. The intention was that the teachers would use it, but they made a few mistakes and got scared of it. Bill was part of a group of math students who were invited to use the system and learn how it worked. By about 13 years old he was hooked.
Did he have jobs before college?
When he was a senior in high school, Bill took a break from classes to do programming at a power plant in North Bonneville, Wash. Bill’s mother and I spoke to his high school headmaster, and we were all in agreement that the job would be a practical way to apply his skills and interests. I recall Bill telling me that he and Paul Allen, who worked there with him, would stay up working on code for the electrical grid management system.
How did you feel when Bill told you he was going to drop out of Harvard?
I can’t say I wasn’t worried. But by then I wasn’t much of a factor in those decisions. He had his own ideas about how he wanted to achieve his goals–plus the computer business he had started with Paul Allen had become very demanding. Being a college dropout wasn’t precisely what my wife and I had envisioned for any of our children, but Bill seemed to know what he was doing.
You have played a very key role in Bill’s philanthropy. Can you talk about how that developed?
My late wife Mary was a firm believer in an idea from the Book of Luke: “To whom much is given, much is expected.” From the beginning, she instilled it as an important value in our family.
As their wealth grew from Microsoft, Bill and Melinda started receiving lots of letters from nonprofits in the Seattle area asking for charitable contributions. But in those days, it was hard for them to give the time to that sort of thing because raising their family and running Microsoft was very full-time, and having a private family foundation is not a simple operation.
Bill and Melinda’s plan was to get serious about philanthropy after Bill retired from Microsoft. That changed after Mary became quite ill with cancer and passed away in 1994, and I retired from my law practice.
Some months later, while we were waiting in line for a movie, I suggested to Bill and Melinda that with my changed condition in life maybe I could help with their charitable activities. I thought it would be a fun retirement job for me and a benefit for them if I reviewed requests for money and gave some away.
I called Bill about a week later to follow up and he said, “Well, Dad, we’ve decided that we’re going to establish a foundation with $100 million.” I was stunned and delighted. Not long after that, I wrote the first check: $80,000 for a local cancer program.