A Tribute to a Giant
September 23, 2020
Editor’s Note: Last week, the world lost two intellectual and moral giants, one who was 6’ 7” (Bill Gates Sr.) and one who was only 5’ 1” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg). Both deaths hit us hard. While we never had the honor of meeting RBG, Bill Sr. was a mentor to Lowell. So in the essay below, Lowell shares a few personal reflections on Bill Sr. and his towering legacy.
Shortly after I began working in the Gates Foundation’s East Coast Office in 2003, I traveled to the foundation’s headquarters with my boss, David Lane. David insisted on popping by Bill Sr.’s office so I would have a chance to meet him. Based on my time in politics, I was prepared for a perfunctory “meet and greet.” Instead, Bill Sr. immediately dropped what he was doing and engaged me in a long conversation. He was interested in my life and ideas—not just my resume and role. Bill Sr. gave me the benefit of the doubt from that first meeting, which continued for my entire tenure at the foundation and beyond. It’s hard to describe just how much I appreciated his support or how much it mattered when I had to present ideas to his son, who can be tough! I suspect that literally thousands of people here in Seattle have similar stories about Bill’s kindness, humility, generosity, encouragement, and mentorship. I’ll share one such story that made me cry when I first heard it years ago. My first mentee at the foundation was a brilliant young man named Ryan Rippel, who is now the director of the foundation’s work to alleviate U.S. poverty (small job!). Ryan worked for Bill Sr. for a few years before going to law school. A few months before Ryan’s graduation, Bill Sr. called him and said, “Ryan, it occurs to me that you don’t have a large family to celebrate graduation with you this spring. I’ve decided that Mimi and I are going to come to Boston and be there to watch you graduate.” Ryan had lost his dad in a car accident, and his mom died from breast cancer. Bill Sr. remembered all of that and wanted to show up for Ryan on that big day. These vignettes speak to the values he brought to his global work. I don’t want to take anything away from Bill and Melinda, who have huge hearts and brains. But Bill Sr. was just as essential to the successes I witnessed in my time at the Gates Foundation. He was the one who started the foundation’s global health work. He created the influential Gates Cambridge Scholars program. And he was the leader of the foundation’s smart, compassionate investments here in the Pacific Northwest. Just as important, he was the number-one culture leader at the foundation. For example, my friend David Wertheimer once saw Bill Sr., who was a bearlike 6’7” and in his 80s at the time, get down on the floor to pick up a can of soda that had rolled under a refrigerator. Bill Sr. always led by example.
In his book The Road to Character, the columnist David Brooks describes two different accounts of Creation, each of which aligns with different sides of human nature. The first side, which Brooks calls Adam I, is the side of our nature that focuses on “resume virtues” and career accomplishments. Adam II, in contrast, “wants to … sacrifice self in the service of others, to live in obedience to some transcendent truth, to have a cohesive inner soul that honors creation and one’s own possibilities.”
Bill Sr. had an incredibly long list of Adam I accomplishments in his remarkable career in the law, civic leadership, and philanthropy. But from my vantage point, what really mattered to that humble man was his Adam II side and passing that along to his family, colleagues, and community. It feels extra sad to me that Bill Sr.’s passing came at precisely the moment in our nation’s history when we most need his brand of Adam II moral leadership. What a loss! What a life!
With grief and gratitude,
Lowell
Lowell Weiss is president of Cascade Philanthropy Advisors, co-editor of Leap of Reason, and advisor to the Leap Ambassadors Community.
Shortly after I began working in the Gates Foundation’s East Coast Office in 2003, I traveled to the foundation’s headquarters with my boss, David Lane. David insisted on popping by Bill Sr.’s office so I would have a chance to meet him. Based on my time in politics, I was prepared for a perfunctory “meet and greet.” Instead, Bill Sr. immediately dropped what he was doing and engaged me in a long conversation. He was interested in my life and ideas—not just my resume and role. Bill Sr. gave me the benefit of the doubt from that first meeting, which continued for my entire tenure at the foundation and beyond. It’s hard to describe just how much I appreciated his support or how much it mattered when I had to present ideas to his son, who can be tough! I suspect that literally thousands of people here in Seattle have similar stories about Bill’s kindness, humility, generosity, encouragement, and mentorship. I’ll share one such story that made me cry when I first heard it years ago. My first mentee at the foundation was a brilliant young man named Ryan Rippel, who is now the director of the foundation’s work to alleviate U.S. poverty (small job!). Ryan worked for Bill Sr. for a few years before going to law school. A few months before Ryan’s graduation, Bill Sr. called him and said, “Ryan, it occurs to me that you don’t have a large family to celebrate graduation with you this spring. I’ve decided that Mimi and I are going to come to Boston and be there to watch you graduate.” Ryan had lost his dad in a car accident, and his mom died from breast cancer. Bill Sr. remembered all of that and wanted to show up for Ryan on that big day. These vignettes speak to the values he brought to his global work. I don’t want to take anything away from Bill and Melinda, who have huge hearts and brains. But Bill Sr. was just as essential to the successes I witnessed in my time at the Gates Foundation. He was the one who started the foundation’s global health work. He created the influential Gates Cambridge Scholars program. And he was the leader of the foundation’s smart, compassionate investments here in the Pacific Northwest. Just as important, he was the number-one culture leader at the foundation. For example, my friend David Wertheimer once saw Bill Sr., who was a bearlike 6’7” and in his 80s at the time, get down on the floor to pick up a can of soda that had rolled under a refrigerator. Bill Sr. always led by example.
In his book The Road to Character, the columnist David Brooks describes two different accounts of Creation, each of which aligns with different sides of human nature. The first side, which Brooks calls Adam I, is the side of our nature that focuses on “resume virtues” and career accomplishments. Adam II, in contrast, “wants to … sacrifice self in the service of others, to live in obedience to some transcendent truth, to have a cohesive inner soul that honors creation and one’s own possibilities.”
Bill Sr. had an incredibly long list of Adam I accomplishments in his remarkable career in the law, civic leadership, and philanthropy. But from my vantage point, what really mattered to that humble man was his Adam II side and passing that along to his family, colleagues, and community. It feels extra sad to me that Bill Sr.’s passing came at precisely the moment in our nation’s history when we most need his brand of Adam II moral leadership. What a loss! What a life!
With grief and gratitude,
Lowell
Lowell Weiss is president of Cascade Philanthropy Advisors, co-editor of Leap of Reason, and advisor to the Leap Ambassadors Community.
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Sep 24 — Online “Does Philanthropy Need to Be More Open About its Investments?” webinar; Alliance for Philanthropy and Social Investment Worldwide Sep 29 — Online “Maintaining Human Connection—6 Months Later” virtual panel discussion; Exponent Philanthropy Oct 1 (start) — Online Giving Done Right podcast; Center for Effective Philanthropy Oct-Jun (various) — Online “Leadership Learning Series” webinars; Institute for Nonprofit Practice Oct 19-23 — Online “Social Capital Markets virtual convening” virtual convening; SOCAPQuotes From Leaders Like You
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