[msb-alumni] Paul Allen, Co-Founder of Microsoft, Dies at 65
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2018 17:41:24 -0400
BlankI didn't realize he had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma while he was so young, which
is apparently why he left Microsoft in 1983.
Paul G. Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates
before becoming a billionaire philanthropist who invested in conservation,
space
travel and professional sports, died Monday. He was 65. His death was announced
by his company, Vulcan Inc.
Earlier this month Allen announced that the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that he was
treated for in 2009 had returned and he planned to fight it aggressively.
"While
most knew Paul Allen as a technologist
and philanthropist, for us he was a much-loved brother and uncle, and an
exceptional friend," said his sister, Jody Allen, in a statement. Allen, who was
an avid sports fan, owned the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks.
Allen and Gates met while attending a private school in north Seattle. The
two friends would later drop out of college to pursue the future they
envisioned: A world with a computer in every home. Gates so strongly believed it
that he left Harvard University in his junior year to devote himself full-time
to his and Allen's startup, originally called Micro-Soft. Allen spent two
years at Washington State University before dropping out as well. They founded
the company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and their first product was a computer
language for the Altair hobby-kit personal computer, giving hobbyists a basic
way to program and operate the machine. After Gates and Allen found some
success selling their programming language, MS-Basic, the Seattle natives moved
their business in 1979 to Bellevue, Washington, not far from its eventual
home in Redmond. Microsoft's big break came in 1980, when IBM Corp. decided to
move into personal computers and asked Microsoft to provide the operating
system. Gates and company didn't invent the operating system. To meet IBM's
needs, they spent $50,000 to buy one known as QDOS from another programmer,
Tim Paterson. Eventually the product, refined by Microsoft and renamed DOS, for
Disk Operating System became the core of IBM PCs and their clones, catapulting
Microsoft into its dominant position in the PC industry. The first versions of
two classic Microsoft products, Microsoft Word and the Windows operating
system, were released in 1983. By 1991, Microsoft's operating systems were used
by 93 percent of the world's personal computers. The Windows operating
system is now used on most of the world's desktop computers, and Word is the
cornerstone of the company's prevalent Office products. Microsoft was thrust
onto the throne of technology and soon Gates and Allen became billionaires.
With
his sister Jody Allen in 1986, he founded Vulcan, the investment firm
that oversees his business and philanthropic efforts. He founded the Allen
Institute for Brain Science and the aerospace firm Stratolaunch, which has built
a colossal airplane designed to launch satellites into orbit. He has also
backed
research into nuclear-fusion power. Allen later joined the list of America's
wealthiest people who pledged to give away the bulk of their fortunes to
charity. In 2010, he publicly pledged to give away the majority of his fortune,
saying he believed "those fortunate to achieve great wealth should put it to
work for the good of humanity. When he released his 2011 memoir, "Idea Man,"
he allowed 60 Minutes inside his home on Lake Washington, across the water from
Seattle, revealing collections that ranged from the guitar Jimi Hendrix
played at Woodstock to vintage war planes and a 300-foot yacht with its own
submarine. Allen served as Microsoft's executive vice president of research
and new product development until 1983, when he resigned after being diagnosed
with cancer. "To be 30 years old and have that kind of shock to face your
mortality really makes you feel like you should do some of the things that you
haven't done yet," Allen said in a 2000 book, "Inside Out: Microsoft in
Our Own Words," published to celebrate 25 years of Microsoft. His influence is
firmly imprinted on the cultural landscape of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest,
from the bright metallic Museum of Pop Culture designed by architect Frank
Gehry
to the computer science center at the University of Washington that bears
his name. In 1988 at the age of 35, he bought the Portland Trail Blazers
professional basketball team. He told The Associated Press that "for a true fan
of the game, this is a dream come true. He also was a part owner of the Seattle
Sounders FC, a major league soccer team, and bought the Seattle Seahawks.
Allen could sometimes be seen at games or chatting in the locker room with
players.
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