To: ***Gay Arts ..,
A Smart Gay List ..
>Subject: [GayArts] Microsoft Pioneer's Estate Gives $65M for Gay Rights,
HIV/AIDS Groups

>
>Microsoft Pioneer's Estate Gives $65M for Gay Rights, HIV/AIDS Groups
>The estate of Ric Weiland, a high school classmate of Microsoft Corp. founders
Bill Gates and Paul Allen and one of the first five people to work at the
software giant, has left $65 million to gay rights and HIV/AIDS organizations.
>The bequests were announced Sunday by the Pride Foundation of Seattle, where
Weiland was a board member for several years. The foundation called it the
largest single bequest ever given to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
causes.
>Gates and Allen hired Weiland in 1975, the year they founded Microsoft. He
worked as a project leader for the Microsoft Works word processing and
spreadsheet software, and was a lead programmer and developer for the company's
BASIC and COBOL systems, two of the first personal computing interfaces. He left
Microsoft in 1988.
>Weiland donated tens of millions to various organizations -- from gay rights
groups to environmental and education organizations -- before he died in 2006.
He committed suicide at age 53 after a long battle with depression, and
survivors include his partner, Mike Schaefer.
>The $65 million is among bequests totaling about $160 million -- the bulk of
Weiland's estate -- to various charities and Stanford University, his
undergraduate alma mater, according to an estimate provided by the Pride
Foundation.
>In the latest bequest, the Pride Foundation said Weiland's estate had
established a fund at the foundation that would give $46 million over the next
eight years to 10 national gay rights and HIV/AIDS groups, including Lambda
Legal; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Parents, Families, and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays; the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; and the
American Foundation for AIDS Research.
>His estate also bequeathed $19 million directly to the Pride Foundation for
scholarships and grants supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
people in the Pacific Northwest. (Elizabeth M. Gillespie, AP)

this is site specific - but it's along the lines of this post....
definitely

http://www.letcaliforniaring.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ltJTJ6MQIuE&b=3554233&ct=4601297

Mark,

I'm glad to hear of this wonderful donation. I wonder what organizations and causes he chose to support.

Much love,
Larry

Larry,

This is great. It would be interesting to see how this is applied.

In some ways - the amount is so big I am not sure why he didn't establish a foundation that would be a continuing resource
for the community - but he must have weighed the 'pros and cons' of it and decided to just 'give.'

It's good news nonetheless!

M