94岁父亲去世！盖茨发文悼念：我父亲才是‘真正的’比尔●盖茨！（附视频&演讲稿）

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据美媒报道，当地时间15日，微软公司创始人比尔盖茨的父亲因病去世。盖茨家族当天发表讣告表示，比尔盖茨的父亲威廉亨利盖茨二世因阿尔茨海默症在华盛顿的住所内安详地离世，享年94岁，而比尔盖茨也在社交媒体与他的网站上发长文悼念自己的父亲。

比尔盖茨当天在其网站上发文致敬父亲：“我父亲的智慧、慷慨、同情心和谦逊对世界各地的人们都产生了巨大的影响。”“如果没有我父亲，比尔及梅琳达盖茨基金会就不会有今天这样的成就。是他塑造了基金会的价值观。随后，盖茨还在推特上再次悼念：“我父亲才是‘真正的’比尔盖茨。他是我想要成为的一切，我每天都会想念他。”

比尔盖茨的父亲威廉亨利盖茨二世生于1925年，是一名退伍军人，曾经是西雅图的一名律师，在退休前，他是Preston Gates & Ellis律师事务所的合伙人，这家律所后更名为K&L Gates，是全美十大律所之一，旗下有超过1800名律师。1998年老盖茨退休之后，他就接受了儿子的建议，担任比尔和梅琳达基金会联席主席一职，并从事慈善事业至今。

比尔·盖茨在文中表示，自己之所以会创业成功成立微软公司，最重要的原因就是有父亲一直在背后无条件支持自己。比尔盖茨表示在年轻的时候曾与父亲有过很多次的争执，但是自己父亲给予自己的爱永远都是无条件的，这才让他有了离开大学与朋友创办微软的勇气。

一位优秀的父亲培养出一位优秀的孩子，因为有父亲威廉亨利盖茨二世的无条件支持，比尔盖茨的成功绝对不是偶然的，这是比尔盖茨成就他的商业帝国的重要力量。

I think a lot of people look up to their father. I know I did. He grew up in a lower middle-class household. His parents didn’t finish high school. 

He was a Boy Scout. He went to the University of Washington. Was an officer in the war. Came back and went to law school and then met my mother and was a very successful lawyer. 

And then helped create the Foundation. That was something he volunteered to help with soon after my mother’s death. My dad is a great example of hard work, integrity, and modesty. 

He did share a lot about the complex cases he was working on, which I found fascinating. Stories of commerce and pricing and profit, loss, what is a business. And I was very energetic and ambitious, but I always tried to temper that with the kind of approach that I associated with my dad. 

My dad’s ability to stand back and assess the situation— it was noble, he had that thoughtful character. You know my dad, nor my mom, really understood the stuff I was working on, but still this idea that he had set sort of a gold standard example of behaviour and integrity, that the character of how he had done things if you could do something large and maintain his integrity that would be quite something. My dad was the best.  

Bill Gates

Remembering my father

My dad passed away peacefully at home yesterday, surrounded by his family.

We will miss him more than we can express right now. We are feeling grief but also gratitude. My dad’s passing was not unexpected—he was 94 years old and his health had been declining—so we have all had a long time to reflect on just how lucky we are to have had this amazing man in our lives for so many years. And we are not alone in these feelings. My dad’s wisdom, generosity, empathy, and humility had a huge influence on people around the world.

My sisters, Kristi and Libby, and I are very lucky to have been raised by our mom and dad. They gave us constant encouragement and were always patient with us. I knew their love and support were unconditional, even when we clashed in my teenage years. I am sure that’s one of the reasons why I felt comfortable taking some big risks when I was young, like leaving college to start Microsoft with Paul Allen. I knew they would be in my corner even if I failed.

As I got older, I came to appreciate my dad’s quiet influence on almost everything I have done in life. In Microsoft’s early years, I turned to him at key moments to seek his legal counsel. (Incidentally, my dad played a similar role for Howard Schultz of Starbucks, helping him out at a key juncture in his business life. I suspect there are many others who have similar stories.)

My dad also had a profound influence on my drive. 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). And he modeled 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.

My dad’s influence on our philanthropy was just as big. Throughout my childhood, he and my mom taught me by example what generosity looked like in how they used their time and resources. One night in the 1990s, before we started our foundation, Melinda, Dad, and I were standing in line at the movies. Melinda and I were talking about how we had been getting more requests for donations in the mail. Dad simply said, “Maybe I can help.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would not be what it is today without my dad. More than anyone else, he shaped the values of the foundation. He was collaborative, judicious, and serious about learning. He was dignified but hated anything that seemed pretentious. (Dad’s given name was William H. Gates II, but he never used the “II”—he thought it sounded stuffy.) He was great at stepping back and seeing the big picture. He was quick to tear up when he saw people suffering in the world. And he would not let any of us forget the people behind the strategies we were discussing.

People who came through the doors of the Gates Foundation felt honored to work with my dad. He saw the best in everyone and made everyone feel special.

We worked together at the foundation not so much as father and son but as friends and colleagues. He and I had always wanted to do something concrete together. When we started doing so in a big way at the foundation, we had no idea how much fun we would have. We only grew closer during more than two decades of working together.

Finally, my dad had a profoundly positive influence on my most important roles—husband and father. When I am at my best, I know it is because of what I learned from my dad about respecting women, honoring individuality, and guiding children’s choices with love and respect.

Dad wrote me a letter on my 50th birthday. It is one of my most prized possessions. In it, he encouraged me to stay curious. He said some very touching things about how much he loved being a father to my sisters and me. “Over time,” he wrote, “I have cautioned you and others about the overuse of the adjective ‘incredible’ to apply to facts that were short of meeting its high standard. 

This is a word with huge meaning to be used only in extraordinary settings. What I want to say, here, is simply that the experience of being your father has been… incredible.”

I know he would not want me to overuse the word, but there is no danger of doing that now. The experience of being the son of Bill Gates was incredible. People used to ask my dad if he was the real Bill Gates. The truth is, he was everything I try to be. I will miss him every day.

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