Ric Weiland, 53; Early Microsoft Employee, Seattle Philanthropist

Ric Weiland, 53, one of the first five Microsoft Corp. employees and a major Seattle philanthropist, committed suicide June 24, the King County medical examiner’s office said Friday.

Friends said he suffered from depression and died at his Seattle home.

Weiland went to high school with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen and Bill Gates hired him in 1975, the same year they founded Microsoft in Albuquerque.

Weiland moved with Microsoft to the Seattle area in 1979. After a stint at Harvard Business School, he rejoined Microsoft in 1982 and worked as the project leader for Microsoft Works, the company’s second-tier word processing and spreadsheet software.

Weiland was a lead programmer and developer for the company’s BASIC and COBOL systems, two of the first personal computing interfaces.

After leaving Microsoft in 1988, Weiland dedicated most of his time to philanthropy. He donated tens of millions of dollars to a number of local charities, including the Pride Foundation and the Lifelong AIDS Alliance.