Bill Gates away half of its value, as detailed in "The Power of Half". Gates and his wife invited Joan Salwen to Seattle to speak about what the family had done, and on December 9, 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates, and investor Warren Buffett signed a commitment they called the "Giving Pledge." The pledge is a commitment by all three to donate at least half of their wealth over the course of time to charity. Gates has also provided personal donations to educational institutions. In 1999, Gates donated $20 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the construction of a
USS Thomas S. Gates the gold rays from the Presidential seal emphasize the significance of Gates's appointment, by President Gerald R. Ford, to head the U.S. Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China, and reflect Gates's contributions to the United States in that role, his last as a public servant. USS Thomas S. Gates USS "Thomas S. Gates" (CG-51) was a flight-I that was used by the United States Navy. The warship was named after Thomas S. Gates, Secretary of Defense in the last years of the Eisenhower Administration (1959–1961). In a break from normal naming conventions for the "Ticonderoga" class cruisers, "Thomas