Jennifer commented, “His book Source Code (released today!) was fantastic to read!”
Jennifer and Phoebe Gates, Bill’s daughters, are proud of their father’s most recent achievement: the publication of his first memoir.
The first book of a planned trilogy, Source Code, will be available on stores on Tuesday, February 4. It recounts the billionaire philanthropist’s early years and Seattle upbringing. The praise is still flowing in after Gates, 69, told PEOPLE last month that his children were “glad to read” the book and had “very nice” things to say about it.
“A big part of why I’m a doctor is because my dad has always instilled this belief in me that scientific advancements — be they AI ultrasound or a vaccine for malaria — are going to make the world a better place,” wrote Jennifer, their 28-year-old daughter, in an Instagram Story post. Jennifer graduated from medical school last year and is currently completing her residency at Mt. Sinai on the Paediatrics Research pathway.
“I’m grateful to Dad for his optimism and I loved reading his book Source Code (out today!) on where it all began,” Jennifer continued.
On her own account, her 22-year-old sister Phoebe posted a number of father-daughter pictures. Phoebe is currently concentrating on the debut of her online design platform, Phia.
She added, “Proud of this guy today,” with a link to his just released memoir.
Gates recently told PEOPLE that he first decided he wanted to write “some kind of autobiography” about five years ago, but that his original plan was to write just one book. However, that all changed with the first draft, which had some parts that were “way too detailed,” others that weren’t “detailed enough,” and the project didn’t start to make sense until he decided to divide his story into a number of books.
Gates, who still has two memoirs to write, said he “enjoyed the process a lot,” but he has occasionally questioned whether writing takes him away from his other responsibilities, especially with his foundation.
He stated, “When I look at my calendar while taking a break from working on HIV, malaria, and polio, I think, ‘Oh, that’s a little self-indulgent that I’m working on my memoir this week, and not telling those teams how to move forward a bit faster,’ but hopefully there’s enough that people can learn that it’s valuable.”
At the conclusion of his biography, Gates gave special mention to his three children: his 25-year-old son Rory, his daughters Jennifer and Phoebe.
“Being your father and watching you grow up has been the greatest joy of my life,” he said. He continued, “As I wrote this book, I thought about how proud your grandparents and great-grandparents would be of the extraordinary people you’ve become.”
