William Gates

Bill Gates Sr. and Mary Gates (http://www.vistaultimate.com/ bill_gates_photo_gallery.htm)

Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington. His parents are William H. Gates and Mary Maxwell Gates. He did well in school, especially at math and science. At the age of thirteen he enrolled in Lakeside School, the most exclusive school in Seattle. It was there that he began having interest in computers.

While he was attending Lakeside, the students were banned from the Computer Center Cooperation. They were caught putting bugs into the operating system in order to obtain free computer time. Gates and a few of the other students offered to debug the Computer Center Cooperation's system in exchange for free computer time. The arrangement continued until 1970, when Computer Center Cooperation was closed.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen (http://www.vistaultimate.com/bill_gates_photo_gallery.htm)

When Gates was older he made computers much easier to use by developing the industry he named Microsoft, with the help of Paul Allen. Today Bill is the chairman of Microsoft. It is one of the largest companies in the computer industry. Microsoft created operating systems such a DOS and Windows. This computer industry has a strong presence in nearly every area of computer software.

Bill and Melinda Gates (http://www.vistaultimate.com/bill_gates_photo_gallery.htm)

Today Bill is married to Melinda French from Dallas, Texas. They have three children: Jennifer, Rory, and Adele. They are currently living in Medina, Washington.

Bill Gates has received many awards, and has been recognized by many different organizations. He was named one of Time Magazines one-hundred people who most influenced the twentieth century. He was on Sunday Time's "Power List" and was made an honorary KBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.

Bill Gates is my hero because he has contributed to society in so many ways. Without him, computers would be much harder to use, and society would not be the same as it is today.