Everyone was shocked to learn of Bill and Melinda Gates' divorcing. While we mainly
know about Melinda from her marriage, she has been quite a leading force through the
evolution of Microsoft as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Let's learn about
her earlier life.
There's a mentality that you have to be born into money to be rich throughout your life.
But Melinda Gates had a pretty normal upbringing. Gates was born in Dallas, Texas in August
of 1964 and was one of four children — she had one older sister and two younger brothers.
She was raised Catholic and adhered to the backbone of the religion. However, Gates has
also been a vocal advocate for women's rights, particularly about access to contraception,
which goes against the very nature of the religion in which she was brought up.
Her father, Ray French, worked as an aerospace engineer — no wonder his daughter was interested
in the STEM curriculum — and her mother, Elaine French, worked as a stay-at-home mom.
Within his line of work, Ray worked on the Apollo missions, and Gates spent her childhood
watching NASA rocket launches — talk about experiences to be inspired by.
Gates revealed in an in-depth profile in The Seattle Times that her childhood was normal
and that her parents were, quote, "loving and supportive."
She said:
"I had parents who told me every step of the way, 'You can get what you want.'"
Gates' mother, Elaine French, never pursued her education on a college level — so, as
a mother, it was a huge part of her role to encourage her children to achieve academic
success.
Given her abundance of support at home, it comes as no surprise to learn that Gates was
a standout in the classroom from a young age.
Gates was described as:
"[A] good Catholic girl, who sits in the front row and gets good grades. And always raised
her hand before speaking out answers."
Given her mother's dedication to education, it makes sense that one of Gates' initiatives
through her foundation is education. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested
billions of dollars in the U.S. education system.
A study commissioned by Microsoft found that by the time girls reach the age of 15, many
of them have been discouraged from pursuing science and math, but that was not the case
for Melinda Gates.
Gates developed an early interest in computers due in part to the math classes she took,
and her interest only grew with time. Her strong interest in STEM has significantly
guided her life as a philanthropist.
Gates has spent the bulk of her career bringing attention to the lack of women and minorities
in the field of technology.
Gates said as part of the annual Computer Science Education Week:
"Bringing women and underrepresented minorities into the field guarantees that we see the
full range of solutions to the real problems that people face in the world."
We're lucky that Gates developed such a keen interest in computers at an early age, because
only 20 percent of the profession is made up of women, according to Computer Science.
"And so I just got used to, in college, I was there for three years, just basically
being in classes with males, I mean that's kinda what you did."
We all know Melinda Gates married the co-founder of Microsoft, one of the largest tech companies
in existence, but her love affair with computers started with a rival company.
Gates' first exposure to the computer was the Apple II. Her father then bought his youngest
daughter the Apple III computer and, according to The Seattle Times, Gates' home was a place
for kids to study and work on the computer.
So, what was the Apple II? As noted by the National Museum of American History at the
Smithsonian, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs created the Apple I computer in 1976 and released
the Apple II to the public in April of 1977.
The Apple II became very popular in the late 1970s and effectively put the company at the
top of the pack. Who would've thought that Gates was, after all, an Apple fan?
"And I got a bumper sticker here for you."
"Oh, you do?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks."
Because Melinda Gates was exposed to the latest developments in technology when she was young
her interest in math and computer science really started to pay off. After she got her
hands on an Apple computer, she started playing computer games.
To top off what was already pretty cutting-edge at that time, Gates started learning programming
language.
Gates would go on to pursue a degree in computer science, and coding has, in fact, stayed a
very relevant and personal topic to her. She appeared as a summer speaker for Girls Who
Code, an organization that inspires girls to pursue careers in computer science.
"And I want to tell you if you're still in high school, you know more about yourself
than you realize. Don't forget that.”
The philanthropist said that jobs in computer science are some of the most needed, and girls
should be filling the spots. She also highlighted her own experience with imposter syndrome
— having been a champion for women in STEM before it was cool. The solution? Go in with
confidence.
"If I was starting over again I would definitely go into tech again. No doubt about it."
Melinda Gates is a very private person. There's so much about her life that has to be pieced
together from rare interviews, her memoir, commencement speeches, and little tid-bits
she shares on social media.
"Growing up in that sort of middle class family with this dream of going to college, you remember
how important it is to get a great education."
She was forthcoming in a 2008 Fortune interview — for a woman who is worth $70 billion,
Gates revealed that she knows what it is like to have to work for what you have.
Gates' parents were adamant that she went to college — her mother didn't get to attend
herself, so it was a very big deal to pursue a higher education.
"But that social justice grounding I got in high school, it just helped me really wrestle
with my values early."
So, Gates' mom and dad started putting in the work early to ensure their daughter's
academic success beyond high school. In addition to his work as an engineer, Gates' father
started a rental property business to build money for his daughter's education.
She said:
"We would help him run the business and keep the books. We saw money coming in and money
going out."
Melinda Gates' time at the Ursuline Academy in Dallas, Texas was pretty great. Gates was
the head of the drill team at Ursuline and was a stand-out student.
Her former computer teacher, Susan Bauer, told The Seattle Times that Gates was always
helping out other students with their programming skills, and her smarts took her all the way
to the top — she graduated as valedictorian in 1982.
Bauer said:
"She was hard-working and personable. She was one of the best students I ever had."
The Ursuline Academy clearly had a positive impact on Gates, because the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation gave $2 million to the high school — their second donation to the school.
The money was directly donated for the construction of The French Family Science, Math, and Technology
Center.
Gates also served as an advisor to the school and helped implement the institution's ambitious
laptop sharing program.
With all the pressures that are associated with being a college student, it's no big
surprise that partying becomes a part of the social fabric.
"Toga! Toga! Toga! Toga! Toga! Toga!
Despite displaying a more quiet demeanor in college, based on what others have said about
her, it's been reported that Melinda Gates did know how to have a pretty good time in
college! One of her sorority sisters, Rebecca Chaffin,
told The Seattle Times that Gates had a hard-working demeanor, but she would frequently join her
peers at beer parties.
She even dipped her toes in the dating pool at Duke, but unlike many of her female peers
who, quote, "typically played the field," Gates was reportedly linked to just, quote,
"a few men for a longer time."
You'd think that the co-founder of Microsoft, one of the biggest tech companies in the world,
would have gotten every kind of college degree necessary in order to set himself up for success.
But Mr. Gates famously dropped out of Harvard, making Melinda Gates far more college educated
than Bill.
Melinda earned two bachelor's degrees from Duke University — one in computer science
and another in economics. Gates was a member of the freshmen advisory council while a student
and served as a campus tour guide. In addition, Gates was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta
sorority, which, on the Duke campus, had approximately 80 sorority sisters.
But, despite all of her involvement, few people were struck by her presence. Fellow sorority
sister Susan Lee Greenfield told The Seattle Times:
"She lived in my dorm, she was in my sorority and I didn't know her very well."
She graduated in 1986 from her undergraduate career and went on to The Fuqua School of
Business at Duke the next year for her master's degree in business administration.
And so, this influential philanthropist is extremely well-educated. Melinda Gates said
about her alma mater:
"No matter how much time passes [...] I always feel connected to Duke. I loved my time at
Duke, and ever since I graduated, I've stayed in touch."
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been very generous with Duke, once giving
the school a $20 million grant to establish the Duke Global Health Institute.
Think back to the days in college when you worked as an intern — you were the person
who followed people around and sometimes fetched coffee. Well, what if we told you that Melinda
Gates, one of the most influential people in the world, also worked as an intern?
After Gates left Duke University she was hired as an intern for IBM — in 1986, IBM was
creating personal computers that could be, for the first time, transported elsewhere.
The company was also introducing floppy disks to the world.
Gates was in the recruitment process for a job out of college, and she reportedly told
a recruiter that she had just one more interview on the books — it was with a fairly new
company called Microsoft.
The recruiter said to her:
"If you get a job offer from them, take it. The chance for advancement there is terrific."
The rest, of course, is history.
Bill and Melinda Gates have been known for their privacy, especially within the press.
They rarely speak to journalists and have told former neighbors and associates not to
speak about them to the media — it's all very hush-hush, but, as noted by The Seattle
Times, Melinda has always been a private person.
After she left college, Melinda lived in a house in Leschi, Seattle. The house itself,
was just as secluded as Melinda — to reach the property that was surrounded by the woods,
you had to climb a long flight of steps.
The property was said to have a great view of Lake Washington, but only Melinda would
really know.
The Seattle Times said:
"Neighbors said she was rarely home and kept to herself, though she was always pleasant
and said hello as she got in and out of her car."
Why the heightened privacy? Who's to say, but maybe Gates knew that many people would
want access to her life one day.
Of course, Melinda Gates finally met Bill Gates when she started working at Microsoft,
and the rest is history. Melinda was a general manager of Microsoft, working on a number
of projects that helped get the company off the ground.
So, how did she and the billionaire co-founder meet? At a Microsoft employee dinner, of all
places.
Melinda said about their early dating lives:
"It took him quite a few months before he asked me out."
Bill reportedly used a blackboard to write out the pros and cons of dating Melinda and,
clearly, the positives outweighed the negatives.
"I never thought that he'd, at that point, get anybody to marry him."
The two married in Hawaii in 1994 and went on to establish one of the largest philanthropic
foundations together.
Bill said about Melinda:
"In the case of Melinda, it is a truly equal partner. She's a lot like me in that she is
optimistic and she is interested in science. She is better with people than I am."
Unfortunately, years later, in May of 2021, the couple announced on Twitter their intentions
to get divorced. We wish both of them the best here on out.
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