Bill Gates Gets Degree After 30 Years

The most successful college dropout finally gets a degree 30 years later. Bill Gates made his papa proud, again, when he himself was a recepient of an honorary doctorate from Harvard before giving a commencement address to students on Thursday. Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1975 to start a little company called Microsoft. Thirty two years later, after becoming the richest man in the world, Bill announced he would be quiting his day-to-day role at Microsoft to devote more time to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr.Bill Gates' sense of humor shined during his speech:

"I want to thank Harvard for this honor. I'll be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume. I applaud the graduates for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part, I'm just happy that the Crimson called me 'Harvard's most successful dropout.' I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class. I did the best of everyone who failed."

"But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school. [Ballmer, now Microsoft's CEO, was also there, sitting in the crowd behind Gates.] I'm a bad influence. That's why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today."

Congratulations Dr. Gates! You've done it again, this time one-uping Steve Jobs and Michael Dell with your shiny doctorate from Harvard.

Excerpts: 'Dr.Bill Gates' at Harvard graduation. [Seattle PI]