Paul Allen
1953-2018
The Grandstander experienced a "first" of sorts when this request from pal Dan Houston popped up on Facebook yesterday:
Hey Bob any chance you do an "Absent Friends" on Paul Allen? I know people in Pittsburgh probably aren't huge fans but he single handedly saved Pro Football in the PNW, all while starting a rock museum and owning a basketball team. He also co-founded a small computer company.
Like I said, this was the first time I received a request for an obituary, and upon further reflection, Mr. Allen is certainly deserving. He died this past Sunday of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 65.
On a sports related note, Allen is the owner of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, the NBA's Portland Trailblazers, and the MSL's Seattle Sounders, so, yeah, he is a giant sports figure in the Pacific Northwest. In the area of popular culture, the "rock museum" that Dan noted started out as a tribute to Seattle's Jimi Hendrix and a place to showcase Allen's own impressive memorabilia collection. It has since morphed into a large rock and roll and popular culture center and is now known as the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.
But it is that "small computer company", actually computer software company, that Allen co-founded back in 1975 with his classmate, Bill Gates, that will leave Allen's biggest impact on the world. The company was, of course, Microsoft, and what bit of technology has had a greater impact on society in the last fifty years or so? If Microsoft's impact is not Number One, it is surely in the Top Five.
Allen and Gates
1981
This statement issued by Microsoft upon Allen's death says it all:
“In his own quiet and persistent way, he created magical products, experiences and institutions, and in doing so, he changed the world."
RIP Paul Allen.
Hoisting the Lombardi Trophy
2014 Super Bowl
On an unrelated note, for inspiring this post, Dan Houston has now been named the Official Pacific Northwest Correspondent for The Grandstander.
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