Bill Gates Sr., the chairman of the largest foundation in the world, says it wasn't one single moment or dramatic event that drew him to early learning, but a gradual realization of just how crucial a child's early years are to everyone's world.

"It's the difference between having a productive child out there looking for jobs and having a child that's not productive. Seems to me there's no higher expense than that. That's huge," said Gates.

And the more he learned, the more concerned he became that our state was falling behind.

"I don't think it's an absence of motivation. It's an absence of resources," said Gates.

So the father of one of the most successful men in the world set out to help other parents learn how to make their child a success.

As the co-chair of the Thrive By Five campaign, he's already seeing encouraging signs of progress, with pilot programs underway for early learning centers in Yakima and white center and up to a dozen other programs around the state already working to teach reading skills to kids before kindergarten.

"One of our school districts doubled reading proficiency with second graders on their public schools by virtue of their early reading learning," said Gates.

But he warns, there's a long way to go and it won't be easy.

"If we do it right, it will be expensive," said Gates.

Carolyn Douglas: What happens if we don't do anything to address this in our state, if we just go on as we have been?

Bill Gates Sr.: Well, it's happening...if it doesn't happen here, it's happening in Illinois, in Oklahoma, North Carolina. We're going to be sick if it doesn't happen here because we're clearly going to see it happening in other places."

He insists he's no authority on the subject, although raising the world's youngest self-made billionaire is nothing to sneeze at.

When we sat down with him several years ago, he claimed he was as surprised by his son's success as anyone.

"Isn't it amazing? He's as amazed by it as the rest of us are," he said. "That isn’t the kind of thing you predict, at least we didn't," he said.

And now here he is, out of retirement, to run the biggest foundation in the world, with a direct pipeline to some of the best early learning researchers in the world and the money to put that research into action.

Carolyn Douglas: "All this research you have now, has it changed who you are as a grandparent? How you treat the children in your life now?'

Bill Gates Sr.:  "NO! I am an absolutely typical grandparent who just takes the good part and doesn't worry about the raising. Besides, in my case, my grandchildren do have really wonderful parents, so they don't need me."

But countless others do. So now he's working to help reach all those children and parents who do need help.

"There are all kinds of parents who don't know enough to be good parents. And that's been true for decades. And the thing to do is create the facilities to change that," said Gates.