He helped change the way we live our lives forever, and the tributes are pouring in.
Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, passed away yesterday of non-Hodgkins lymphoma at the age of 65.
He and high school classmate Bill Gates dropped out of college in 1975 to found the company, with the goal of creating "hobbyist" computing—what would eventually become the "PC" that now sits on nearly all desks (or laps) and change life as we know it forever.
Indeed Bill Gates, in his public statement about Allen's passing, said of Allen that "personal computing would not have existed without him."
Allen left Microsoft in 1983, after a falling out with Gates, but retained his shares in the company, which made him a billionaire upon its going public in 1986. In the decades since, Allen invested in a myriad of tech and business entities, as well as launching an enormous range of philanthropic efforts in technology and artificial intelligence, medical research, environmental causes, the arts, education, and was the largest donor to the fight against the Ebola crisis in Africa, funding organizations like the Red Cross/Red Crescent and Médecins Sans Frontières (more commonly known in the US as Doctors Without Borders).
Allen was also an avid investor in sports teams, purchasing the Portland Trailblazers NBA franchise in 1988 and singlehandedly keeping the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle by purchasing them in 1997, when their former owner attempted to move the team to California.
Lesser known but no less impressive, was Allen's enormous talent as a musician--so much so that legendary music mogul Quincy Jones recently put Allen's guitar playing on the same level as Jimi Hendrix.
Jones himself paid tribute to his friend on Twitter, calling him a "killer guitar player."
Jones was joined by countless others, from tech insiders and sports figures to Hollywood luminaries wanting to pay their respects and say good bye:
Allen may be gone, but his impact seems like it will live on forever.