Richard W. (Ric) Weiland, a friend of Bill Gates and Paul Allen who helped launch the Microsoft Corporation and who died in 2006, left $160-million, the majority of his estate, to charity, The Seattle Times reported. His bequests include $65-million for gay-rights groups and a gift to Stanford University estimated to be worth $60-million, which a university official told the newspaper was the largest bequest it had ever received.
Mr. Weiland, who earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford in 1976, was one of the first five Microsoft employees. He committed suicide in 2006 at age 53, and it has taken more than a year to sort out his estate. The Seattle newspaper described him as a quiet philanthropist, adding that the full scope of his giving was just now starting to emerge. Other bequests disclosed today included $65-million to the Pride Foundation in Seattle and 10 other nonprofit organizations that support the rights of gay and lesbian Americans. The money will support antidiscrimination campaigns, programs to help young people, and scholarships.
No further details of the Stanford gift were available today, but university reports show that Mr. Weiland was a major contributor to Stanford over the years. He endowed professorships in the names of both of his parents, the Martha Meier Weiland Professorship in medicine and the Richard Herschel Weiland Professorship in physics. He also established a Stanford Graduate Fellowship, and contributed support for various research programs, as well as unrestricted gifts. —Charles Huckabee
