American software developer and philanthropist Richard (Ric) Weiland was BOTD in 1953. Born in Seattle, Washington, he went to high school with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. In 1969, Allen and Bill Gates offered Weiland a contract working on computer software, eventually co-founding the Lakeside Programming Group. He postponed his final undergraduate year at Stanford University to join Gates and Allen in Albuquerque, helping create Microsoft Corporation, and becoming the company’s second employee. After studying at Harvard Business School he rejoined Microsoft in 1982, working as project leader for Microsoft Works, the company’s second-tier word processing and spreadsheet software. He was a lead programmer and developer for the company’s BASIC and COBOL systems, two of the first personal computing interfaces. In 1988, he left Microsoft, aged 35, with shareholdings in the company making him a multi-millionaire. He dedicated the rest of his life to philanthropic causes, donating tens of millions of dollars to a number of LGBTQ charities, including the Pride Foundation, amfAR (aka the Foundation for AIDS Research), the Lifelong AIDS Alliance and Lambda Legal. Discreetly gay, Weiland was in a long-term relationship with Mike Schaefer. He suffered from depression throughout his life, amplified by his HIV+ diagnosis and concerns over the lack of effective treatment for his illness. He killed himself in 2006, aged 53. Before his death, he bequeathed US $19.8 million for the Pride Foundation, which had the responsibility of distributing an additional $46 million to ten LGBTQ organisations over the next decade. His life and legacy were profiled in the 2021 documentary Yes I Am – The Ric Weiland Story.