Paul Allen: 1953–2018

Tech pio­neer and phil­an­thropist Paul G. Allen, who amassed one of the largest for­tunes in the world after co-found­ing Microsoft with Bill Gates, has died due to com­pli­ca­tions of can­cer, his fam­i­ly has announced.

“It is with deep sad­ness that we announce the death of our founder Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and not­ed tech­nol­o­gist, phil­an­thropist, com­mu­ni­ty builder, con­ser­va­tion­ist, musi­cian and sup­port­er of the arts,” the fam­i­ly said through Allen’s firm Vul­can, Inc. “Mr. Allen died on Mon­day after­noon, Octo­ber 15, 2018, from com­pli­ca­tions of non-Hodgkin’s lym­phoma in Seat­tle. Mr. Allen was 65 years old.”

“Paul loved Seat­tle and the Pacif­ic North­west,” said Vul­can CEO Bill Hilf.

“The impact of Paul’s efforts can be seen here at every turn. But the true impact of his vision and gen­eros­i­ty is evi­dent around the globe.”

“Paul thought­ful­ly addressed how the many insti­tu­tions he found­ed and sup­port­ed would con­tin­ue after he was no longer able to lead them. This isn’t the time to deal in those specifics as we focus on Paul’s fam­i­ly. We will con­tin­ue to work on fur­ther­ing Paul’s mis­sion and the projects he entrust­ed to us. There are no changes immi­nent for Vul­can, the teams, the research insti­tutes or museums.”

His sis­ter Jody empha­sized that Paul deeply cared for his fam­i­ly despite hav­ing many busi­ness, char­i­ta­ble, and polit­i­cal projects on his plate.

“Paul’s fam­i­ly and friends were blessed to expe­ri­ence his wit, warmth, his gen­eros­i­ty and deep con­cern. For all the demands on his sched­ule, there was always time for fam­i­ly and friends. At this time of loss and grief for us – and so many oth­ers – we are pro­found­ly grate­ful for the care and con­cern he demon­strat­ed every day.”

“Paul Allen stands as a giant in Wash­ing­ton his­to­ry for the genius vision that was so impor­tant to cre­at­ing Microsoft with Bill Gates. That he went on to do so much more for our state, nation and the world puts him in rar­efied company.

“Paul was a major phil­an­thropist who believed in giv­ing at home,” said Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee in a state­ment. “Seat­tle is dot­ted with the results of his phil­an­thropy and invest­ments, from the unbe­liev­able work of the Allen Insti­tute for Brain Sci­ence to the preser­va­tion of the world-class Cin­era­ma movie theater.”

“He brought us a Super Bowl cham­pi­onship, a rev­er­ence for Jimi Hen­drix and a vision for Seat­tle that today is home to some of the world’s most inno­v­a­tive biotech research and has been the cra­dle of the city’s eco­nom­ic boom. ”

“He cared about the larg­er world, too, step­ping up to fight ebo­la and work­ing to pre­serve endan­gered ani­mals. He exposed the dark depths of oceans and pio­neered pri­vate­ly fund­ed space flight. There’s lit­tle in the uni­verse that didn’t inter­est Paul.”

“Paul Allen’s con­tri­bu­tions to our com­pa­ny, our indus­try and to our com­mu­ni­ty are indis­pens­able,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadel­la.

“As co-founder of Microsoft, in his own qui­et and per­sis­tent way, he cre­at­ed mag­i­cal prod­ucts, expe­ri­ences and insti­tu­tions, and in doing so, he changed the world. I have learned so much from him – his inquis­i­tive­ness, curios­i­ty and push for high stan­dards is some­thing that will con­tin­ue to inspire me and all of us at Microsoft. Our hearts are with Paul’s fam­i­ly and loved ones. Rest in peace.”

The Muse­um of Pop Cul­ture (MoPOP), the Fly­ing Her­itage Col­lec­tion, the STARTUP Gallery in Albu­querque, and the Allen Insti­tute for Brain Sci­ence all owe their exis­tence to Paul’s pas­sion for sci­ence, his­to­ry, and culture.

The Allen lega­cy we appre­ci­ate the most could well be the Liv­ing Com­put­ers Muse­um + Labs, which is one of the North­west­’s coolest insti­tu­tions. Locat­ed in the SoDo neigh­bor­hood, it has an acces­si­ble col­lec­tion of com­put­ers from decades past run­ning old oper­at­ing sys­tems like Win­dows 95 and Win­dows 98.

“Liv­ing Com­put­ers: Muse­um + Labs also ful­fills my hope that the achieve­ments of ear­ly com­put­er engi­neers aren’t lost to time,” Allen says in a wel­come let­ter on Liv­ing Com­put­ers’ web­site. “I want­ed to pro­vide a web­site and repos­i­to­ry that rec­og­nized the efforts of those cre­ative engi­neers who made some of the ear­ly break­throughs in inter­ac­tive com­put­ing that changed the world.”

Allen was also the own­er of the Seat­tle Sea­hawks and the Port­land Trail Blaz­ers. He kept the Nation­al Foot­ball League in Seat­tle dur­ing the 1990s on the con­di­tion that the Sea­hawks get a new pub­licly financed sta­di­um (Cen­tu­ryLink Field) to play in. They did, and today it is home to the Seat­tle Sounders as well as the Seahawks.

Allen sup­port­ed both Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans in his polit­i­cal giv­ing. He recent­ly donat­ed $100,000 to keep Repub­li­cans in con­trol of the U.S. House. He also donat­ed $1 mil­lion to pass Ini­tia­tive 1639, which the right wing fierce­ly opposes.

There are few peo­ple who have had the kind of influ­ence on the Pacif­ic North­west that Paul Allen has had. We extend our con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and friends.