her husband’s community activism. While
raising the family, she volunteered for everything from working on political campaigns
to helping at the local children’s hospital
and at United Way, where she served in leadership positions at the national and international levels. The Gates children remember
standing with their mother on street corners
on election day holding signs supporting a
school levy. And around the dinner table,
she always asked young Bill how much of
his allowance he would be giving to the
Salvation Army at Christmas.
Mary Gates passed away from cancer in
1994. A street in her Seattle neighborhood is
named after her.
“There was nothing really unusual
about our family,” says Bill Senior. “We were
like tens of thousands of other families that
had a wife and a husband and three kids.
There isn’t anybody who would have
observed it and thought there was anything
special about the family. It just obviously
turned out that all three of them have been
very constructive citizens.”
Adds Kristi, the oldest child, “I don’t
think anything that was done can explain
my brother in his exceptional success. I
“ He wanted to learn about everything.”
COURTESY OF THE GATES FAMILY/MEDIA BAKERY
T rey”s first brush with commerce was as a
C ub Scout selling nuts door to door during
the holidays. As a teenager, he and his friend
P aul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, became
i ntensely interested in computers and would
s neakoutatnighttoworkonthematthe
n earby University of Washington campus. Bill
S enior says there was discussion of his son
becoming a lawyer. It never occurred to him
that Trey would start a company. “It
probably wouldn”t have occurred to him, either,”
he adds.
T o the profound dismay of his parents,
Trey dropped out of Harvard in 1975 as a
sophomore to join Allen in creating a fledgling
company called Microsoft.
But was young Bill unusual “Yeah, he
was different,” Kristi responds quickly. “He
spent a lot of time reading; he spent a lot of
time in his room. He was very opinionated
about a lot of issues when he was a kid. He
was sort of geeky.”
“I would definitely characterize him as a
computer nerd,” adds Libby, Bill’s younger
sister. “The other attribute I would add in
addition to being a bookworm was that he
was very competitive.”
Microsoft”’sBillGatesasaCubScout,
when he had his first business experience
selling nuts in Seattle neighborhoods
d uring the holidays.
think what was done can explain all of our
understanding of our place in society and
our role in giving back that was modeled a
lot through our childhood.”
Portrait of a PC as a young man
The young Bill Gates, nicknamed Trey to
avoid confusion with his dad and granddad,
was from a young age a bookworm and insatiably curious about things. Bill Senior relates
how Trey had to be told occasionally to not
read at the dinner table. “He didn’t want to
just learn about some things,” Senior writes.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
son ’s ersectiv
THE CONNECTION asked Bill Gates for
comments about his father’s book. He
responded by e-mail.
Costco Connection: What was it about
growing up in your household that was
most influential toward your success?
Bill Gates: I learned so much from
both my parents growing up. My parents
were constantly exposing us to new
ideas and encouraging us to learn, and,
of course, they showed by example a
deep commitment to family, work and
friends, while giving back in ways that were
effective and could make a difference.
They also believed in having fun while
being competitive—which meant we played
a lot of games of all kinds. And they were
hugely committed to education—not just
for their own kids, but as a way of ensuring
every kid had an opportunity to succeed. In
fact, my mom was once a teacher and my
dad chaired Seattle’s public school levy
campaign. At 83, he’s still hard at work on
improving education for kids from all walks
of life.
I’m also very thankful that my parents
exposed us to the world of adults from a
very early age. This became especially
important when I started my first business,
and then again with Microsoft, because I
was never intimidated. Even if someone was
much older or had more experience, I felt
comfortable discussing and debating important ideas, and, especially from my dad,
learned to look at things from every angle.
CC: It was quite an incredible announcement that you and Melinda would give away
a significant amount of your personal wealth
to charitable causes, and indeed that you
would leave Microsoft to work full time
at the foundation. How did this decision
come about?
BG: I always knew I would dedicate
time and money to giving back and tackling big issues—but I was so busy at
Microsoft and enjoying all the responsibilities and rewards of building a company
and starting a family that I thought our
philanthropy would happen later in life.
Fortunately, Melinda and I had two
people that we had full faith and trust in:
my dad and Patty Stonesifer. They started
the foundation more than a decade ago.
As the work evolved and as Melinda and
I got more involved, it became clear that
we could have a much bigger impact if
we did it on a more full-time basis.
I loved my work at Microsoft, so it
was a hard decision to leave and one
that happened over time, but I feel great
about having the opportunity to really
focus on the foundation’s work. Plus, it’s
a huge opportunity for me to get to do
this work with Melinda and with my
dad.—TT
