Mario Segale facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mario Segale
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Segale in 2016
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| Born | April 30, 1934 Seattle, Washington, U.S.
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| Died | October 27, 2018 (aged 84) Tukwila, Washington, U.S.
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| Years active | 1950–2018 |
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Donna Segale
(m. 1957) |
| Children | 4 |
Mario Arnold Segale (born April 30, 1934 – died October 27, 2018) was an American businessman. He was known for developing many buildings and properties in the Seattle area, starting in the 1950s. Segale is also famous because Nintendo's popular video game character, Mario, was named after him. This happened when Nintendo was renting a building from him.
Contents
Mario Segale's Business Life
Mario Segale was born in Seattle in April 1934. His parents, Louis and Rina Segale, were immigrants from Italy. Mario was their only child.
He finished high school at Highline High School in 1952. In 1957, he started his own construction company with just one truck. This was the same year he married his wife, Donna.
Together, Mario and Donna built a successful business called M. A. Segale Inc. This company focused on asphalt and construction. It grew into a very large company in the region. In 1998, they sold their business for $60 million.
Building Projects and Investments
Mario and his son, Mark, also worked on other projects. They invested in real estate, which means buying and selling land and buildings, especially in the Seattle area.
For example, in 1996, his company sold the land for the Emerald Downs racetrack in Auburn. They sold it to the Muckleshoot tribe for $73.6 million. Segale was also very involved in projects near Tukwila, Washington. In the 2010s, he worked on a large development project there.
Mario and the Nintendo Character
The video game company Nintendo started renting one of Segale's warehouses in Tukwila in 1981. They used it as their main office in America.
While Nintendo was creating the arcade game Donkey Kong, a famous story says that Segale visited the warehouse. He went there to collect rent that Nintendo of America's president, Minoru Arakawa, had not paid yet. Segale reportedly got upset with Arakawa in front of the employees.
How Mario Got His Name
According to this widely told story, Arakawa and the game developers decided to rename the main character in Donkey Kong. This character was first called Jumpman. They decided to name him Mario after Mario Segale.
This story first appeared in a book by David Sheff in 1993. For a long time, people thought Segale's last name was spelled Segali because of a mistake in that book. Later, the story was shared in another book in 2001 and then spread widely online.
In 2015, Nintendo officially confirmed that their famous Mario character was indeed named after Mario Segale. In 1993, Segale joked to The Seattle Times newspaper, "You might say I'm still waiting for my royalty checks."
Later Life and Passing
Mario Segale passed away on October 27, 2018, at his home in Tukwila, Washington. He was 84 years old. He was survived by his four children: Lisa Atkins, Mark Segale, Tina Covey, and Nita Johnson. He also had nine grandchildren.
See also
In Spanish: Mario Segale para niños
