Bill Gates Sr. Regents for the University of Washington, and is a co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which his son Bill and his daughter-in-law Melinda founded. He has served as a director for Costco Wholesale, a bulk retail corporation, since 2003. He is also a founding co-chair of the Pacific Health Summit. He has adopted the suffix "Sr." to distinguish himself from his more famous son. Gates is co-author, with Chuck Collins, of the book "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes", a defense of the policies promoted by the estate tax. He married Mary Maxwell Gates
USS Thomas S. Gates awarded a contract to scrap ex-"Thomas S. Gates" to ESCO Marine, 15 December 2014. She was towed to New Orleans, LA., for scrapping in July 2017. The Naval Vessel Register lists the ships decommissioning and strike date as 16 December 2006. DANFS lists the decommissioning date as 15 December 2005. There is also a pamphlet entitled "USS Thomas S. Gates (CG 51) decommissioning ceremony, 14 December 2005 Naval Station Mayport" OCLC 156786375 listed on Worldcat. The Times-Union of Jacksonville, Florida noted that "USS Gates" (sic) was to decommission today, 14 December 2005. "Thomas S. Gates"'s insignia reflects the government service