PART 1: Family and Early Childhood - Bill Gates
On October 28, 1955, shortly after 9:00 p.m.. Bill Gates was born. He was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics, and community service. His great-grandfather had been a state legislator and mayor, his grandfather was the vice president of a national bank. His father was William Henry Gates III but he changed his name to William Henry Gates Jr. when he went into World War II (did not want to be teased about his "high- tone" name. His mother was Mary Maxwell Gates from a prominent Seattle family. They were married in 1951.
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Bill's trademark rocking back and forth started in his childhood. He was very smart and bored in school. His maternal grandmother Adelle Maxwell taught him a variety of card games and she was also fiercely competitive.
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Early on in life, it was apparent that Bill Gates inherited the ambition, intelligence, and competitive spirit that had helped his progenitors rise to the top in their chosen professions. In elementary school he quickly surpassed all of his peer's abilities in nearly all subjects, especially math and science.His parents recognized his intelligence and decided to enroll him in Lakeside, a private exclusive school for boys, known for its intense academic environment. This decision had far reaching effects on Bill Gates's life. For at Lakeside, Bill Gates was first introduced to computers.
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In 1968 at age 13 as an 8th grader while at Lakeside School he got access to a Teletype connected by a 110 baud modem to a GE MARK II time-sharing system that only had BASIC (Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). The teletype combined a keyboard, a printer, and a paper tape punch and reader. It cost $89 per month to rent the teletype and $8 an hour for on-line fees (about $450 and $40 in 1998 dollars, respectively). Gates quickly became an avid programmer and one of the main users of the system.
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