Ric Weiland

Richard W. "Ric" Weiland (April 21, 1953 – June 24, 2006) was a computer software pioneer, programmer and philanthropist. He was the second employee at Microsoft Corporation joining the company during his final year at Stanford. When he was 35 he left Microsoft to focus his time on investment management and philanthropy, becoming a quiet but well respected donor to the LGBTQ social justice movement, the environment, health & human services and education. After his death, the Chronicle of Philanthropy called Ric's bequest the 11th largest charitable gift in the nation with more than $165 million distributed between 20 non profit beneficiaries.

Weiland was a high school classmate and friend of Paul Allen, with whom he created the Lakeside Programmers Group at Lakeside School, a preparatory school in Seattle, Washington, United States. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Kent Evans, and Weiland were involved with the Computer Center Corporation, using their PDP-10. They worked together to create a payroll program in COBOL for Portland company Information Sciences Inc., and wrote scheduling software for a school.

Allen and Gates hired Ric in 1975, the same year they founded Microsoft in Albuquerque. As one of only five employees, Weiland was a lead programmer and developer for the company's BASIC and COBOL language systems.

After a couple semesters at Harvard Business School, in 1976-77, he rejoined Microsoft and became the project leader for Microsoft Works. He was described by Allen as a "brilliant programmer" and a key contributor to the company's success.

During his life Weiland was a donor to more than 60 non-profit organizations and distributed an estimated $21.5m primarily between 1996-2006. His largest gift was to establish an endowed chair in his mother's name at Stanford - the Martha Meier Weiland professorship in the School of Medicine. He was influential as an active member of the Northwest gay community. During his time as a volunteer on the Pride Foundation's board of directors from 1997 to 2001, he helped win the fight to get General Electric to include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policy. A member of the national GLSEN board (an organization focused on supporting gay-straight alliances in schools across the country) from 2002-2005, he was a fervent supporter of programs promoting safe schools for all kids.

...
Wikipedia