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and a wonderful friend.
"After the war, when Violett and the two children and I were living in West Seattle, I decided that was too far to drive every day and I wanted to move into town. So, we drove around Seattle and picked out six houses which we thought we might like to live in. None of these houses were for sale, but they looked good to us, so I just walked up to the front door and knocked, and told whoever answered that I would like to buy their house. That home I pointed out to you over there was one of those homes. "Out of the six houses, three of the owners said they would sell. I made an offer to buy one of the houses on the lake in the Montlake area. But the medical fraternity at the University of Washington bid more than my offer and I lost out to them. "Another owner I met that day told me that his house was not for sale, but then a few days later he called me back and said he had changed his mind and that he would sell his home to me. It seems his wife had gone on a trip to Oregon, and he had just received word that she was not coming back. So, I bought that house on Lake Washington. About 25 years later, it was sold to Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. Josef recalls: "Bill Gates, Sr., who was a friend of mine, paid off the balance due on the house. Later he came back and told me that he had overpaid what was owed by $200. So, I gave him back the $200." "When I owned that house, we just called it our home. But after Bill Gates moved in, it came to be known as the Bill Gates Mansion."
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