Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, dies at 65

Paul Allen, the taciturn computer programmer who founded the software behemoth Microsoft with Bill Gates when he was 22 and walked away eight years later with what would become one of the largest fortunes in the history of American capitalism, died yesterday in Seattle. He was 65. The cause was complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to his investment company, Vulcan Inc. Although once dubbed the ‘‘accidental zillionaire’’ by Wired magazine, Allen was in fact an essential part of the launch and early success of Microsoft, which thrived on the combination of Allen’s creative programming genius and Gates’ hard-driving business acumen. ‘‘I guess you would call me the doer and Paul the idea man,’’ Gates said in 1981.