Paul Allen, owner of Seahawks, Trail Blazers and co-founder of Microsoft, dies at 65

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers, has died of complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 65.

A few weeks ago, Allen said the cancer he was treated for in 2009 had returned.

Allen was a pillar in the Seattle Sports scene after purchasing the Seattle Seahawks in 1996 and helping establish the Seattle Sounders in Major League Soccer back in 2007. He was also an owner of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers.

Allen along with Bill Gates, helped establish the technology age with the founding of Microsoft in 1975. Later in life, he turned to his love of sports and philanthropy.

According to the Associated Press, Allen gave more than $2 billion to a wide range of interests, including ocean health, homelessness and advancing scientific research.

Allen’s family issued a statement about his passing:

“My brother was a remarkable individual on every level. While most knew Paul Allen as a technologist and and philanthropist, for us he was a much loved brother, uncle and exceptional friend,” said his sister, Jody Allen.

“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.”

Other Allen facts, according to the Associated Press:

• “Microsoft’s big break came in 1980, when IBM Corp. decided to move into personal computers. IBM asked Microsoft to provide the operating system.”
  
  
• “Allen and Gates met while attending a private school in north Seattle. Gates so strongly believed it that he left Harvard University in his junior year to devote himself full-time to his and Allen’s startup, originally called Micro-Soft. Allen spent two years at Washington State University before dropping out as well.”
• “After Gates and Allen found some success selling their programming language, MS-Basic, the Seattle natives moved their business in 1979 to Bellevue not far from its eventual home in Redmond.”
• “With his sister Jody Allen in 1986, he founded Vulcan, the investment firm that oversees his business and philanthropic efforts. He founded the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the aerospace firm Stratolaunch, which has built a colossal airplane designed to launch satellites into orbit. He has also backed research into nuclear-fusion power.”
  
  
• “Allen later joined the list of America’s wealthiest people who pledged to give away the bulk of their fortunes to charity. In 2010, he publicly pledged to give away the majority of his fortune, saying he believed ‘those fortunate to achieve great wealth should put it to work for the good of humanity.’”
  
  
• “When he released his 2011 memoir, ‘Idea Man,’ he allowed 60 Minutes inside his home on Lake Washington, across the water from Seattle, revealing collections that ranged from the guitar Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock to vintage war planes and a 300-foot yacht with its own submarine.”
  
  
• “Allen served as Microsoft’s executive vice president of research and new product development until 1983, when he resigned after being diagnosed with cancer.”
• “His influence is firmly imprinted on the cultural landscape of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, from the bright metallic Museum of Pop Culture designed by architect Frank Gehry to the computer science center at the University of Washington that bears his name.”
  
  
• “In 1988 at the age of 35, he bought the Trail Blazers. He told The Associated Press that ‘for a true fan of the game, this is a dream come true.’”

This story was originally published October 15, 2018 at 3:27 PM.