Allen, Paul (1953-2018), helped found the Microsoft Corporation, one of the world’s largest developers of computer software. In 1975, he and his friend Bill Gates began writing programs for small computers (see Gates, Bill ). The two founded Microsoft that year.
Microsoft developed the operating system for the PC, the first personal computer sold by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). An operating system is a special program that contains instructions for the operation of the computer. Millions of copies of the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) were sold for use with IBM and IBM-compatible personal computers.
As head of research and new product development for Microsoft, Allen helped engineer such successful software products as Word, a word-processing program, and Windows, an operating system that employs a graphical user interface (GUI). A GUI allows people to issue commands by pointing to on-screen symbols and clicking a mouse rather than by typing instructions.
Allen left his position at Microsoft in 1983, but he remained on the company’s board of directors until 2000. In 1986, Allen founded Vulcan Inc., a business conglomerate that includes several high-technology companies, an investment firm, entertainment enterprises, and charitable organizations. He served as chairman of Vulcan until his death. Allen provided financing for SpaceShipOne, the first privately developed and launched spacecraft to carry a person into space. The spacecraft, built by the aerospace company Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, carried the American pilot Michael Melvill more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth during a brief suborbital flight in 2004.
Allen also was involved in professional sports as the owner or co-owner of several teams. He purchased the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team in 1988 and the Seattle Seahawks football team in 1997. He became a co-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, a professional soccer team, in 2007. Paul Gardner Allen was born in Seattle on Jan. 21, 1953. He died on Oct. 15, 2018.
