No, not THAT Bill Gates. This Bill Gates, pictured right.

On the top 10 weird things that could happen to a Seattle newcomer, finding out your neighbor's name is Bill Gates ranks high. So when I first met my 1st Ave. W. neighbor and he told me his name was Bill Gates, I thought it a ridiculous prank. It took years for me to really get it through my skull that my Bill Gates was indeed a bonafide Bill Gates, albeit Captain Bill Gates, not the attorney Bill Gates or son Microsoft Bill Gates.

Capt. Gates came to Seattle in 1941 as navy radioman stationed at Sand Point. He then lived all over the U.S. during a military career with the Navy, Coast Guard and Army, before retiring in Seattle as an Army Captain in 1961.

Naturally, a few others have struggled to distinguish Capt. Bill Gates from those 'other' Bill Gateses. In the late 1960's, went to work for SeaFirst Bank. He was elected ex. secretary of the in-house union and helped rally workers at the 110 bank branches to strike for better wages. A story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from May 1970 about Capt. Bill Gates was entitled "Mighty Unlikely Revolutionary,'' and helped quell notions that Capt. Bill Gates was a "fire-breathing radical of some sort.''

Also, Capt. Bill Gates once helped draft a letter on behalf of a candidate for Washington state Attorney General addressing labor issues. Turns out Bill Gates Sr., father of Microsoft Bill, was working on the same campaign. The Senior Gates had to write another letter dispelling any notion that labor leader Bill Gates was the American Bar Association Bill Gates Sr.

Capt. Gates is 84 now. Sadly, he lost his wife last year. But he and his three children all live on the same street on the crown of Queen Anne. He is a fixture on 1st Ave. W., and a really interesting part of Seattle history, stock options or not.