| It is with great sadness we share the news of William H. Gates Senior’s passing on Monday, September 14, 2020.
Bill Gates Sr. has many profound legacies, but the one that resonates most with us is the investment in the vision that created the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health.
When family planning lost its prominence on the global agenda in the 1980s and 1990s, Bill Gates Sr. helped to ensure that it earned a spotlight once again in policies and programs across the globe. His seminal investment in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health allowed the Gates Institute to identify and train the “leaders of tomorrow” across the world in the family planning and reproductive health landscape.
Bill Gates Sr.’s legacy was recognized and honored by the reproductive health community worldwide with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Kigali, Rwanda in 2018. The Gates Institute dedicated its Twelve-year Report in his honor in 2017. His powerful role in raising the profile of family planning and reproductive health across the globe and in the creation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute was documented in a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Institute last year. The family planning community will continue to honor Bill Gates Sr. and his legacy long into the future.
As we remember and celebrate the momentous impact Bill Gates Sr. had on the world, we remain dedicated to being a force for good and a global leader in social change. He will be greatly missed. |
