Bill Gates is a great American success story, making his fortune on something that did not exist until he created it. That was actually very rare until the last generation or so. Steel and Oil all existed and were in use when Carnegie and Rockefeller got theirs. Steam came well before Fulton. Cars were around before Ford. Marconi was perfecting earlier work with bold experiments but nothing to compare to Microsoft. Banking success is just a refinement of older banking processes. Maybe the incredible Write Brothers were a parallel to Gates. I still find it hard to believe that the two brothers basically without previous input or education (all they could get was faulty) could unlock secrets that were hidden since men watched birds fly.
BTW - there actually are patron saints of various kinds of geeks and it's not Bill Gates. That honor for Scientists goes to Saint Albert the Great (~1200-1280). There is a story that the patron of Engineers is St. Patrick (yes from Ireland - has to do with snakes and worm drives) but that one is suspect.
