Mary started her career in public service by doing such things as tutoring children who were having problems in school and going into homes as a United Way volunteer to help a single parent and the kids get by after a mother or father had died or left home.
Over time the number of groups she served and the magnitude of her responsibilities grew.
She was a volunteer leader for Children's Hospital who lobbied officials in both Washingtons on issues affecting children, and for almost two decades she was a regent for the University of Washington. Her lifelong career with United Way carried her from being the first woman ever to chair our local United Way to leadership positions with United Way of America and United Way International.
On the United Way of America board she served alongside such leaders as the president of IBM, John Opel.
In fact, it was Mary who first told John Opel that our son and his company, Microsoft, were working on a project for IBM. The venture between Microsoft and IBM occurred solely on its own merit. According to an IBM staff member, when Microsoft's work for IBM was brought before Opel during a review of the IBM PC project, he said, “Oh, that's Mary Gates's son.” The IBM employee said it was nice that Trey's mom had put in a good word for him.