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
Thomas S. Gates Jr. College of the Atlantic is named in his honor. Gates died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 1983. The "Ticonderoga"-class guided missile cruiser USS "Thomas S. Gates" (CG-51) is named after the late Secretary of Defense. It is the only such cruiser named after a person. Thomas S. Gates Jr. Thomas Sovereign Gates Jr. (April 10, 1906March 25, 1983) was United States Secretary of Defense from 1959 to 1961 under President Eisenhower. He was promoted from deputy secretary of defense. During his tenure, he established a task force to set nuclear target priorities. He also authorized U-2 reconnaissance flights, including