PSYCHEDELIC PHILANTHROPIST AND SHAREWARE LEADER DIES

Psychedelic philanthropist and computer shareware pioneer Bob Wallace --
Microsoft Corp.'s ninth employee -- died at his San Rafael, Calif., home
Friday. He was 53.

During the past decade, Mr. Wallace championed such psychoactive drugs as
MDMA, or Ecstasy, donating up to $350,000 a year to groups studying the drug.

"MDMA seems to help reduce the fear people have of really looking at
themselves, and it really helps people communicate well," Mr. Wallace told
the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in May.

He said he had tried Ecstasy and felt it had "a lot of good therapeutic
uses." He also felt the drug helped people feel compassion.

Mr. Wallace and his wife started Mind Books in 1996, a company that
provided publications about "mind-expanding plants and compounds."

Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies, described Mr. Wallace as a generous donor who quietly supported
MAPS and other drug-research groups.

Mr. Wallace "had the rare courage of his convictions," Doblin said. "He had
a sense that we are overdeveloped intellectually and underdeveloped
emotionally."

A talented computer programmer, Mr. Wallace was born in Washington, D.C. He
attended Brown University in 1967.

In the 1970s, he moved to Seattle, where he worked at the city's first
personal-computer store and attended the University of Washington.

In 1978, after Bill Gates posted a sign on campus looking for programmers
for his fledgling company, Mr. Wallace started working at Microsoft as a
production manager and software designer. That year, he earned a graduate
degree in computer science.

He left Microsoft in 1983 to start a Bellevue-based software company,
QuickSoft, producing a word-processing program called PC-WRITE. Mr. Wallace
distributed the program free of charge, but users who paid a fee had access
to added functions. He dubbed his software "shareware" and is credited for
coining the term.

"My philosophy is that I want to make a living, not a killing," he once
told writer and software expert Michael Callahan.

Users who distributed Mr. Wallace's shareware would also get a commission
if anyone they distributed the software to paid fees.

"Nobody else ever did that; nobody else even tried that. He was the only
one," Callahan said.

"He helped as many people as he could. It was how he felt about business,"
said Callahan, adding that Mr. Wallace often joked that his business
philosophy prevented him from becoming more successful.

Mr. Wallace helped found the Washington Software Association in 1985, and
married Megan Dana, an artist and QuickSoft employee, the following year.

The couple, who had no children, separated just over a year ago, but
remained close.

Mr. Wallace sold QuickSoft to another former Microsoft employee in 1991,
and seemed to focus more intensely on researching psychedelic drugs,
becoming socially active within the community in recent months.

Doblin last saw Mr. Wallace in April at a dinner party.

"He looked happy," said Doblin, noting that Mr. Wallace had a new
girlfriend and was in the process of getting an amicable divorce.

Mr. Wallace died after a bout with pneumonia, according to Marin County
coroner Kenneth Holmes.