Philip Gale

Philip Chandler Gale (November 15, 1978 – March 13, 1998) was an American pioneering Internet software developer, computer prodigy, and sophomore student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He was notable for having written Total Access while at MIT, and was hired by EarthLink at the age of 16 to work on its development.

Philip's father was a software engineer, and in 1981 had founded RealWorld, a supplier of accounting software.

His parents met through the church in Los Angeles, where Marie was on staff and David was a fanatic.

The family moved from Los Angeles to New Hampshire when Philip was young, and he showed "an early aptitude for numbers and machines".

Seeing his abilities, Marie taught him at home with another mother, and said that before the age of five, he was reading and doing math at the second and third-grade level.

Later they lived in Clearwater, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Utah; and Oregon.

From the age of 8, Gale lived and studied at The Delphian School in Sheridan, Oregon, a private boarding school based on L. Ron Hubbard's study technology.

Philip's parents personally knew the founders of the school.

He graduated from there at age 14.

At that time, his family had moved to Utah.

Gale got a job in programming at the marketing firm where his father worked, but he had contentious relations with fellow workers, as he could outperform many older programmers and had a tendency to treat people who were not as intelligent as he with contempt.

Gale was admitted to MIT at the age of 15 in 1993.

He initially pursued studies in physics and engineering.

In addition to his ability in programming, he was an accomplished musician.

At MIT, he joined the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity as a freshman in late 1994.

At 16, Gale wrote an important software program called "Total Access", to increase usage of Internet service providers (ISP).

He was hired by EarthLink over Christmas break his first year as a student, and took a 3-semester sabbatical from MIT to work at the company, which had been founded by Sky Dayton, a Scientology member and fellow Delphian School alumnus.

As director of research and development, Gale developed his program to increase the ability of the company's internet servers to connect customers to the Internet, giving the firm a competitive advantage that helped it ascend to the top ranks among ISPs.

It eventually acquired one million customers and a market share worth $2 billion.

During his time away from MIT, Gale started indulging in drinking, smoking, gambling, and sex, exploring experiences that were at odds with his earlier religious education.

He abandoned Scientology, and compared its methods to the self-parodying Church of the SubGenius.

During his time at EarthLink, Gale dated a couple of women, but had difficulties relating to many of his coworkers.

In 1995, Gale's father died from a heart attack, and friends said Gale struggled to come to terms with the loss.

His father died from a heart attack in 1995 when Gale was 17.

Friends and family said that Gale was profoundly affected by the loss of his father.

A year later, he seemed to be struggling with real grief and trying to come to terms with it.

He returned to MIT in 1996 and became a music major.

Gale returned to MIT in 1996.

In fall of 1997, he switched from physics to the humanities, becoming a music major and surprising some of his friends.

On March 13, 1998, Gale jumped to his death from a classroom on the 15th floor of a building on the MIT campus.

His younger sister, Elizabeth (Liz) Gale is well known for speaking out against the Church of Scientology.

She runs a TikTok account educating the public about the Church and their crimes.

Philip Chandler Gale was the eldest child of Marie and David Gale.

He had a younger sister Elizabeth.

His parents and many of his immediate family were deeply committed to the Church of Scientology.

His mother Marie had been in the church from the age of 12, and her parents and grandparents were also believers.

In 2008, the company had more than one million users.

By the age of 17, Gale had earned roughly a million dollars' worth of stock options at EarthLink for his innovative ISP programs.

Before his 17th birthday he declared legal emancipation, which allowed him to exercise stock options worth about a million dollars at EarthLink, which was about to go public.