Bill Gates pays tribute to his beloved father as he breathed his last at 94

Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates’s father William H. Gates II died Monday at his beach home on Hood Canal in Washington.

In a tweet on Bill Gates’s official account, his son paid tribute to a ‘dignified man’ who was a ‘quiet influence on almost everything I have done in life.’

He wrote, “My dad was the “real” Bill Gates. He was everything I try to be and I will miss him every day.”

The lawyer and philanthropist from Alzheimer’s disease, the family said.

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My dad was the “real” Bill Gates. He was everything I try to be and I will miss him every day.https://t.co/OnAEsmosNb

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) September 15, 2020

‘My dad’s wisdom, generosity, empathy, and humility had a huge influence on people around the world,’ Bill Gates wrote in the tribute, explaining that his health had been declining for some time.

“When I was a kid, he wasn’t prescriptive or domineering, and yet he never let me coast along at things I was good at, and he always pushed me to try things I hated or didn’t think I could do (swimming and soccer, for example),” Gates Jr. wrote.

“And he modelled an amazing work ethic. He was one of the hardest-working and most respected lawyers in Seattle, as well as a major civic leader in our region.”

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Born in 1925, Gates Sr. grew up in Bremerton, Washington, where his parents owned a furniture store. He joined the Army following his freshman year at the University of Washington and en routed to Japan when it surrendered in 1945.

He served a year in war-torn Tokyo before returning to the United States and resuming his education, his family said.

After earning his law degree in 1950, he began working in private practice and as a part-time Bremerton city attorney.

He formed a Seattle law firm with two other partners that eventually became Preston Gates and Ellis — now known as K & L Gates. The firm was one of the first to work with the region’s technology industry.

However, K & L Gates is one of the world’s largest law firms.

Gates Sr. and Mary Maxwell, had two daughters and a son — Gates Jr. — and remained married until her death in 1994. Later, he married Mimi Gardner with whom he spent the last quarter-century of his life.