WALLACE

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Friday, October 06, 2006 at 19:10:15 :

San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, October 4, 2002
A-26

Bob Wallace - early Microsoft employee

Bob Wallace, a software visonary who was Microsoft Corp.'s ninth employee, has died at his home in San Rafael. He was 53.

Mr. Wallace, who died Sept. 20, worked at Seattle's first computer store, which was a hangout for hobbyists. It was there that Mr. Wallace saw a sign that Bill Gates had taped up seeking programmers to work at his new company.

Soon after Mr. Wallace joined Microsoft, it started g rowing. But he quit in 1983 to start his own company, Quicksoft. He left with 450 shares of Microsoft stock, that multiplied with st ock splits to more than 100,000.

"Bob was a great early contributor to Microsoft," Gates said. "He was one of our first employees, and he built our first Pascal product."

Mr. Wallace studied computing at Brown University. He came to Seattle in the 1970s to continue his studies at the University of Washington.

He helped start the Washington Software Association, a business lobby, in 1985.