Why Bill Gates is a Great American

Proposing a New Inductee to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans: William “Bill” Henry Gates III
The purpose of this paper is to develop a relevant definition of what it means to be a “great American” today, and to demonstrate what it takes to satisfy these definitional criteria. In the information technology field, one name stands above the rest in personifying the types of enduring contributions to the nation that make an individual a “great American.” Indeed, William “Bill” Henry Gates III is an exemplary model of a highly successful modern business leader, entrepreneur and philanthropist. In support of this nomination, an informative summary of Gates’ life and description of his contributions to the nation are followed by a summary of the biographical research and important findings concerning nominating Gates for the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
Established in 1900 to honor the best of the best in American leadership, the Hall of Fame for Great Americans features 98 bronze busts nestled in an outdoor colonnade at Bronx Community College was the first “hall of fame” in the country. When it was established at the fin de siècle, induction into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans was considered a major achievement, and even the elections for new nominees received nationwide press coverage (Dolnick1). In fact, some contemporary observers suggest that the institution was so famous that it was referenced in the motion picture, “The Wizard of Oz,” when the Munchkins proclaim that Dorothy will be “. . . a bust, be a bust, be a bust in the Hall of Fame!” (as cited in Dolnick 2).
Following the sale of the Hall of Fame in 1973, however, the collection of bronze busts of great Americans has been largely ignored and forgotten despite the luminaries that are honored there and there have been no new inductees since 1976 (Dolnick 2). Clearly, what the Hall of Fame needs at present is some fresh blood in its hallowed halls who reflect the increasing diversity as well as the latest enduring contributions that individuals have made to American society and culture. As noted in the introduction, one such individual who satisfies the definitional criteria for a great American is Bill Gates whose life and contributions are discussed further below.
Businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955 (Biography 1), the middle child of William H. Gates II, a successful attorney at law in Seattle and Mary Gates, who was an educator prior to becoming a mother to his older sister, Kristi; Bill would also have a younger sister, Libby (Biography 1). There were few signs from Bill’s early youth that suggested he was destined for greatness, and in many ways he was an exceedingly normal child who was fond of playing board games and reading science fiction (Biography 2).
Moreover, unlike many of his peers, Bill was a bright student who was actually good at math in elementary school, but these qualities contributed to his becoming easily bored with schoolwork and he was frequently in trouble as a result (Biography 2). In an attempt to transfer Bill’s energies into something more productive, his parents signed him up with the Boy Scouts where he also excelled, earning the coveted Eagle Scout award, earned by just 4% of all Boy Scouts (Wendell 2). These early experiences contributed to Bill’s competitiveness, a quality that he would need when his parents transferred him to the Lakeside Preparatory School where he was introduced to computers as well as his future partner, Paul Allen (Biography 2).
It is important to keep in mind that the computers that Bill was introduced to at this period in history did not resemble modern personal computers or laptops; rather, they were energy-hungry behemoths that occupied entire rooms. Indeed, an ordinary cell phone today has far more processing power than these early computers. Moreover, during this period in history, computer programmers used labor-intensive fragile punched cards for data input, but Bill took to the technology in a major way and wrote and compiled his first program, tic-tac-toe, on a mainframe computer with time rented by his school (Biography 2).
His tendency to get into trouble at school followed him to Lakeside where Bill and some of his friends were actually banned from future computer usage as a result of their hacking the system in an effort to obtain additional time on the computer, but there privileges were restored when they agreed to help the school identify bugs in the computer system in exchange for additional computer time (Biography 2). Some indication of Bill’s future began to emerge at this time in his life when he wrote a scheduling program for Lakeside and another program to handle the payroll for a local company, as well as a program to facilitate traffic pattern tracking in the city of Seattle with his friend and early business associate Paul Allen while he was still in high school (Biography 2).
Following his graduation in 1973 from high school, Bill enrolled at Harvard University where his initial plans called for him to follow in his father’s footsteps as an attorney, but his interests drew him back to computers and he kept in close contact with Paul Allen who was employed at Honeywell at the time (Biography 2). In 1974, the Altair personal computer was introduced and this innovation convinced Bill and Paul that they could write compatible programs using BASIC despite their lack of hands-on experience. The due actually contacted Altair and advised company representatives that a BASIC program was already under development for the Altair and they were surprised when the company wanted a demonstration of the program in just a few weeks. According to one biographer, “He worked hard over the next month or so and, when they finally went to New Mexico to run the software, it worked perfectly the first time” (Biography 2).
This empowering experience convinced Bill to leave Harvard in 1975 to found a software company with Paul Allen which they called Microsoft. Despite some early successes, the computer industry was changed forever in 1980 when Microsoft reached an agreement with IBM to furnish the entire operating system for the envisioned IBM personal computer (Biography 3). Although Microsoft only charged IBM $50,000 for the operating system, Bill retained the software copyright and other companies began to purchase it after the personal computing market experienced explosive growth (Biography 3).
Unlike many of the other great Americans honored in the Hall of Fame, Bill was not handed anything on a silver platter and earned his success the hard way. As one of his many biographers points out, “Together with his partner Paul Allen, Gates founded and built the world's largest software business, Microsoft, through technological innovation, keen business strategy and aggressive business tactics” (Bill Gates biography 1-2). As a result of these successes, Bill became one of the richest people on the globe, a position he still enjoys today (Bill Gates biography 2). When he announced his retirement as chairman of the board of Microsoft in February 2014, Bill could perhaps be forgiven if he elected to pursue of life of hedonistic pleasure with a net worth of around $80 billion (Success story of Microsoft co-founder 1) but to his everlasting credit, he decided to give back – not only to his own country but the entire world as well by establishing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Bill Gates biography 2).
Since its founding, the Foundation has succeeded in funding numerous innovative and effective healthcare programs in the United States and other countries. According to the current head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, “We want our involvement to have the greatest impact. And because global health is so interdisciplinary, we may bring partners together to forge new alliances. It can, admittedly, create tensions but it is up to our staff to provide the added value. In the long term, we will be judged by the results of our funding” (as cited in Cumberland 401). The Foundation’s motto, “All lives have equal value” characterized Bill’s benevolent and generous philosophy concerning his fellow humans. Some of the current initiatives that the Foundation is focusing on include the following:
· Provide the poor with access to financial tools
· Teach farmers how to increase production sustainably
· Help women make informed family-planning decisions
· Increase students' college completion rates (About the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 4).
These initiatives are directly related to Bill’s own personal views about how best to help others help themselves. In this regard, Bill makes it clear that, “"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." To his credit, Bill has put his money where his philosophical mouth is and has empowered millions of people around the world to make their communities better places to live.
Conclusion
While times have changed since the Hall of Fame of Great Americans was founded more than a century ago, the definition of a great American remains essentially the same. Together with other great Americans such as several of the Founding Fathers, Susan B. Anthony, Alexander Graham Bell, Andrew Carnegie and the Wright brothers, Bill Gates has earned his place in this hallowed hall by virtue of his intellect, entrepreneurship and most especially his philanthropy as administered by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.



Works Cited
“About the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.” Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/.
“Bill Gates biography.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 15 Mar. 2018, www.biography.com/people/bill-gates-9307520.
“Bill Gates Biography: Success Story of Microsoft Co-Founder.” Astrum People, 2018, astrumpeople.com/bill-gates-biography/.
Cumberland, Sarah. “Awareness to Action: Regina Rabinovich Manages a Portfolio of More Than US$ 1 Billion of Grants in Infectious Disease Work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She Talks with Sarah Cumberland about the Challenges and Successes of Working in Global Health.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 89, no. 6 (June 2011), pp. 400-403.
Dolnick, Sam. “A Hall of Fame, Forgotten and Forlorn.” The New York Times, 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/nyregion/05metjournal.html
Wendell, Bryan. (2018) “What percentage of Boy Scouts become Eagle Scouts?” Bryan on Scouting. https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/03/30/what-percentage-of-boy-scouts-become-eagle-scouts/.