Bill Gates’s mother’s first name was Mary.
Mary Maxwell Gates was born Mary Ann Maxwell in 1929 and became a prominent civic and business leader in Seattle. She served on the boards of organizations including First Interstate BancSystem and the University of Washington, and she was the first woman to chair the national United Way board.
Her public and professional connections were sometimes mentioned in accounts of Microsoft’s early growth. In 1980, she served with John Opel, then chairman of IBM, on a United Way committee. That connection helped create an introduction between IBM and Microsoft during the development of IBM’s personal computer, although Microsoft’s relationship with IBM was built through business negotiations and software work.
Mary Maxwell Gates died in 1994. She is sometimes confused with Melinda French Gates, Bill Gates’s former wife and a later philanthropic partner. Mary was Bill Gates’s mother; Melinda was his spouse and fellow foundation leader for many years.