ASSOCIATED PRESS/PHOTODISC
ASSOCIATED PRESS/PHO TODISC
Family portraits: Upper left, Bill Gates Sr. and his son, Bill; above, Bill
Senior and daughters Libby, left, and Kristi, right; and left, Bill Gates
and his wife, Melinda, who now devote full time to their foundation.
IRIDIO PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO/MEDIA BAKERY
the nature of modern philanthropy, commented Bob Buford, author of the business
bestsellers Halftime and Finishing Well and an
authority on executives seeking personal fulfillment after business success: “You’re seeing
the richest man in the world invest his most
valuable asset, which is not his money but his
genius at solving problems.”
This all leads one to ask where such decisions came from. Clues can be found in a new
book, Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the
Gifts of a Lifetime, by Bill Gates Sr., the father
of Microsoft’s famous co-founder. The book,
which started out as a private memoir to be
shared with his children and grandchildren,
grew into an account of the principles and
lessons that shaped his life, and consequently
the lives of the three Gates children, Kristi
(Blake), 55; Bill; and Libby (Armintrout), 44.
In reading the book, you get a glimpse of the
forces that influenced the younger Gates and
his sisters, which in turn have played a role in
the influential decisions the younger Gates
makes today.
The elder Gates, 83, casually called “Bill
Senior” to distinguish him from his son, is a
prominent Seattle lawyer, civic activist and
philanthropist in his own right who was summoned out of retirement to start his son’s
foundation, which he operated out of his
basement in its first years. Gates, who serves as
a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair,
sits on Costco’s board of directors.
Growing up Gates
In a recent conversation with The Connection, the elder Gates insists there was no
grand scheme by him and his late wife, Mary,
to produce remarkable children. (Kristi and
Libby have also both been heavily involved for
decades in a variety of philanthropic and civic
activities.) Instead, the mantra in the Gates
household in Seattle was simply to “show
up”—whether for family life, civic activities
or school.
Bill Senior was influenced by many people who did just that, such as the scoutmaster
who took the troop every weekend, rain or
shine, on adventures from camping to handcrafting a massive wood lodge in the woods.
He grew up in Bremerton, Washington, a
working-class port near Seattle, where he
worked in his father’s furniture store doing
heavy lifting. He served in the Army at the
end of World War II, attended college on the
GI Bill and became an attorney.
In his book, Bill Senior depicts a warm
family life with his wife and three children
that was built around many small routines
and rituals—spending vacations with other
families in cabins at a favorite waterfront
resort, reading aloud to each other, playing
post-dinner card games, having family
dinners on Sunday and wearing matching
pajamas on Christmas. All these traditions
influenced the Gates children, beyond the
simple fact that they still practice many of
them today.
Perhaps the biggest lesson came from the
volunteer work that Bill and Mary Gates performed in the community. As a young attorney, Bill Senior started doing pro bono law
work and served on committees and boards
for everything from the chamber of commerce
to school levies. He was president of his state’s
bar association and still sits on the board of
regents at the University of Washington.
Mary Gates matched and even exceeded
