Mary Maxwell Gates

Mary Ann Gates (; July 5, 1929 – June 10, 1994) was an American banker, civic activist, non-profit executive, and schoolteacher. She was the first female president of King County's United Way, the first woman to chair the national United Way’s executive committee where she served most notably with IBM's CEO, John Opel, and the first woman on the First Interstate Bank of Washington's board of directors. She was the mother of Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft.

Personal life Mary Ann Maxwell was born in Seattle, Washington, on July 5, 1929, to James Willard Maxwell (Nebraska, 1901–1960), a banker, and his wife, whom he married in c. 1927, Adele Thompson (c. 1903–1987, probably born in Enumclaw, Washington). Her paternal grandfather, James Willard Maxwell (1864–1951), was president of the National City Bank in Seattle from 1911 to 1929 and a director of the Seattle branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

She graduated from Seattle's Roosevelt High School and then attended the nearby University of Washington, where she received a degree in education in 1950. She married UW law graduate William H. Gates, Sr. in 1951, and she taught school in the early 1950s. After her husband co-founded the law practice that became Preston Gates & Ellis in Seattle, Gates turned to a variety of civic activities. Gates' volunteer roles in Seattle and King County included serving on the boards of the Children's Hospital Foundation, Seattle Symphony, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, United Way of King County, and many other nonprofit organizations. She served as President of the Junior League of Seattle from 1966 to 1967.

She had three children, one of whom is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Since then, her family has established two endowments in her name at the University of Washington. The UW's Mary Gates Hall is named in her honor and houses the UW's Undergraduate Academic Affairs, the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, the Career Center, and the Information School.