Paul Allen was the co-founder of Microsoft, a computing pioneer, and one of the world's great philanthropists. Allen died in 2018, at the age of 65, and at the time his co-founder Bill Gates paid tribute to "a brilliant technologist and philanthropist who wanted to accomplish great things, and did."
Allen left Microsoft in 1983, following a diagnosis for Hodgkin's lymphoma, though remained on the board of directors until 2000 and became extraordinarily wealthy, with estimates putting his net worth at over $20 billion. During his life Allen donated more than $2bn to charitable causes, built museums, owned the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks football team, and amassed a quite incredible collection of computing and scientific artefacts.
