Mario Segale
Encyclopedia
Mario A. Segale is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 businessman and real estate developer. He has been involved in various development projects in the Seattle area since the 1950s. He is widely known in popular culture as the source of the name of Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

's Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...

 character.

Business successes

Segale's firm M.A. Segale Inc., a privately owned asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

 and construction business, sold for $60 million in 1998 to Irish concern CRH plc
CRH plc
CRH plc, , is an Irish building material group, formerly called Cement-Roadstone Holdings plc. It is quoted on the Official Lists of the Irish Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange.-History:...

, for integration into its Oldcastle Materials
Oldcastle Inc.
Oldcastle, Inc., is a subsidiary of Ireland-based CRH plc and is divided into two organizational units: Oldcastle Products and Distribution and Oldcastle Materials...

 unit. Segale and family member Mark Segale are involved in other ventures, including development of a 490 acres (2 km²) development in Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The northern edge of Tukwila borders the city of Seattle. The population was 19,107 at the 2010 census.-History:...

.

Nintendo Mario series legacy

In 1981, Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

 was renting one of Segale's warehouses to use as their American headquarters. The company struggled at first, but was preparing for a major breakthrough in the North American release of a new video game, Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong (video game)
is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a...

. According to a widely circulated story, around this time, the company had gotten behind in a rent payment, prompting an angry visit from their landlord, Segale. After some heated words, Segale eventually accepted Nintendo of America President Minoru Arakawa
Minoru Arakawa
was the founder and first president of Nintendo of America from 1980 to 2002.Born in Kyoto, Japan, he attended Kyoto University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1972, he was hired by Japanese conglomerate Marubeni as part of their international staff, with the responsibility of...

's promise that the rent would be paid soon, and left. According to the story, Arakawa and the other developers subsequently immortalized Segale by renaming the star of Donkey Kong, previously known as "Jumpman", to "Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...

".

This story was first published in David Sheff
David Sheff
David Sheff is an American author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction. In 2009, Sheff was included in the Time Magazine Time 100, The World's Most Influential People, and Beautiful Boy was named the best nonfiction book of the year...

's 1993 book Game Over, and later appeared in Steven L. Kent
Steven L. Kent
Steven L. Kent is an American writer, known for both video game journalism and military science fiction novels. In 1993, Steven started work as a freelance journalist, writing monthly video game reviews for the Seattle Times...

's The Ultimate History of Video Games in 2001. It thereafter spread widely on the Internet. Nintendo has never confirmed that their Mario character is indeed named for Segale. For his part, Segale has been largely reticent about the subject, quipping to the Seattle Times in a rare interview, "You might say I’m still waiting for my royalty checks."

Notable political contribution history

A 2004 study by the Seattle Times found that Segale was one of the top 50 political contributors in Washington State. Overall, Segale and his son Mark donated more than $90,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations between 2000 and 2007. Some of these contributions were to elected officials who worked to secure state legislative earmarks for roads in a privately owned development proposed by a Segale company.
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