Mary Maxwell Gates

Mary Maxwell Gates
Born	Mary Maxwell (1929-07-05)July 5, 1929 Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Washington
Occupation	Schoolteacher, businesswoman
Spouse(s)	William H. Gates, Sr.
Children	Bill Gates
Parent(s)	James Willard Maxwell Adele Thompson

Mary Maxwell Gates (July 5, 1929 – June 10, 1994) was an American businesswoman. Gates served 18 years (1975–1993) on the University of Washington board of regents. She was the first female president of King County’s United Way, the first woman to chair the national United Way’s executive committee where she served most notably with IBM's CEO, John Opel, and the first woman on the First Interstate Bank of Washington's board of directors. Mary's son Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft.

Personal life

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, as Mary Maxwell to James Willard Maxwell (Nebraska, 1901 – 1960), a banker, and his wife, whom he married in c. 1927, Adele Thompson (probably born in Enumclaw, King County, Washington, c. 1903).

Gates received a degree in education from the University of Washington in 1950. She met and married law student William H. Gates, Sr., at that time. During the early 1950s, she taught school. After her husband co-founded the law practice that became Preston Gates & Ellis in Seattle, Gates turned to a variety of civic activities. Gates' volunteer roles in Seattle and King County included serving on the boards of the Children's Hospital Foundation, Seattle Symphony, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, United Way of King County, and many other nonprofit organizations. She also served as President of the Junior League of Seattle from 1966–1967.

Mary and William H. Gates, Sr., had three children, one of whom was Bill Gates.

Career

In 1975, Governor Daniel J. Evans appointed Gates to the Board of Regents for her alma mater, where she led the movement on the board to divest the University of Washington's holdings in South Africa to protest apartheid. In addition, Gates served on the UW Foundation Board of Directors, the UW Medical Center Board, and the UW School of Business Administration's Advisory Board.

In the for-profit world, Gates served for many years on the boards of several major corporations, including: First Interstate Bank of Washington; Unigard Security Insurance Group; Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company, which became U.S. WEST Communications; and KIRO Incorporated.

Beyond the Seattle area, Gates was appointed to the board of directors of the national United Way in 1980, becoming the first woman to lead it in 1983. Her tenure on the national board's executive committee is believed to have helped Microsoft, based in Seattle, at a crucial time. In 1980, she discussed with John Opel, a fellow committee member who was the chairman of the International Business Machines Corporation, her son's company. Mr. Opel, by some accounts, mentioned Mrs. Gates to other I.B.M. executives.

A few weeks later, I.B.M. took a chance by hiring Microsoft, then a small software firm, to develop an operating system for its first personal computer.

Death

Mary Maxwell Gates died in 1994 at her Laurelhurst home after a months-long bout with breast cancer. Since then, her family has established two endowments in her name at the UW. The UW's Mary Gates Hall is named in her honor and houses the UW's Undergraduate Academic Affairs, the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, the Career Center, and the Information School.

External links

• Portrait of Mary Gates by Margaret Holland Sargent commissioned for the University of Washington
• Junior League of Seattle
• University of Washington's Mary Maxwell Gates page
• Essay on Mary Gates and Family at HistoryLink, the online encyclopedia of Washington State history.
• Mary Gates Hall