Yesterday morning the phone rang and I saw it was my sister calling. I answered the phone and she asked "Julie, did Bill Gates die?". I was a little startled by the question. I had been listening to NPR a little earlier but certainly didn't hear anything like that! Could something have happened since I turned the radio off?

I asked her why she was asking.

She said she had just caught the tail end of a piece on the radio that sounded like an obituary.

I laughed. "No no" I told her. "He's 'sort of' leaving Microsoft and Friday is his last day."

So I guess this means the whole world hasn't had this on their mind for the last two years?

I remember when I first heard of his plan. I was driving home from TechEd 2006 in Boston listening to the news and the story of his announcement came on the air. My memory tells me that I actually pulled over to listen to this because it was so surprising. Two years later, I can't be sure if I truly pulled over or not, but it certainly feels like it impacted me that strongly.

I even blogged about it back then (and there is no record of my pulling off the road), suggesting that I would love to go work for the Gates Foundation.

Last winter when I had an opportunity to meet Gates in person, I did tell him "hey, if you *ever* want to open an office of the Gates Foundation in Vermont, I'm your girl..." He laughed and surely forgot two minutes later.

So tomorrow's the last day. He's not totally letting go - he still remains Chairman of Microsoft and will be somewhat involved, though his full time job will now be with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

There are lots of articles about him as the day draws near, some looking backwards, obituary-like, as the Marketplace story which my sister heard, and some, like this Seattle PI article, looking forward.

What's been fascinating about Bill Gates for many years now is the work he does globally through the Gates Foundation and as an incredibly insightful and influential person on the world stage, while at the same time continuing to drive plenty of Microsoft's direction(s).

Surely Gates will be no less interesting after tomorrow, nor will Microsoft!