Person
Mary Maxwell Gates
Seattle civic leader, University of Washington regent and United Way board member; mother of Bill Gates.
- Dates
- 1929 – 10 Jun 1994
- Place
- Seattle
- Also known as
- Mary Gates, Mary M. Gates
-
Mother of Bill Gates
- educated at Harvard University left in 1975 without a degree (honorary degree 2007) 1973–1975
- founded Microsoft co-founder 1975
- signed The Giving Pledge 2010
- founded The Giving Pledge co-founder Jun 2010
-
William H. Gates Sr., husband
- member of United Way of America chair of the Seattle-King County United Way campaign (1989) 1989
Mary Maxwell Gates came from a Seattle banking family; her father and grandfather were prominent bankers. She was a University of Washington regent for 18 years, the first woman director of First Interstate Bank of Washington, and in 1983 the first woman to chair the national United Way’s executive committee.
On that national board she served with IBM’s president, John Opel. According to The Seattle Times, she “helped cement Microsoft’s early connection with IBM”, the 1980 deal that put her son’s company in the IBM PC.
Connections 4
mother of
- Bill Gates Primary record 12
relative of
-
William H. Gates Sr.
husband
Scholarship & press
34
Married in 1951; she died in 1994.
board member of
- United Way of America national board; first woman to chair its executive committee (1983) Primary record 56
influenced
-
IBM–Microsoft operating-system deal
According to The Seattle Times
Scholarship & press
5
The obituary reports that IBM president John Opel, who sat with her on United Way's national board, called Microsoft the company 'run by Bill Gates, Mary Gates' son'. The IBM and Microsoft records cited here do not say her tie decided the deal.
Timeline 1 date
- 1929 – 10 Jun 1994 Mary Maxwell Gates
Proof 6 sources
-
Bill Gates (leadership biography), Gates Foundation.
Primary record
His late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chair of United Way International.
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Gates, Mary Maxwell (1929-1994), HistoryLink.org.
Scholarship & press
His mother, Mary Gates, influenced him to become one of the highest-profile contributors to United Way and to start a gift-matching program at Microsoft.
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Mary Gates: She's Much More Than Just The Mother Of Billionaire Bill, The Seattle Times, 9 Jan 1994.
Scholarship & press
The two wed in 1951.
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Bill Gates Sr., father of Microsoft co-founder, dies at 94, Associated Press, 15 Sep 2020.
Scholarship & press
Gates Sr. met his first wife, Mary Maxwell, at the University of Washington.
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Mary Gates Dies: Cancer Claims Longtime Seattle Civic Leader And Mother Of Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, The Seattle Times, 10 Jun 1994.
Scholarship & press
In 1983 she was named the first woman to chair the national United Way's executive committee.
Mrs. Gates also figured in her son's success. She helped cement Microsoft's early connection with IBM, which led to development of the IBM PC with DOS, an operating system supplied by Microsoft.
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Lessons From Mom: How Bill Gates's Mother Shaped His Philanthropic Journey, United Way of America, Feb 2025.
Primary record
Mary later became board chair for United Way International and board director for United Way of America.
Page history 1 change
- connect-the-dot: sourced knowledge graph engine, site and contenta7fa236
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