Bill Gates had to attend some unfinished business last week. Gates, who dropped out of Harvard and co-founded Microsoft to become the world?s richest person, stopped off at his former stomping grounds to collect an honorary law degree.

?We recognize the most illustrious member of the Harvard College class of 1977 never to have graduated from Harvard,? said Harvard University Provost Steven Hyman. ?It seems high time that his alma mater hand over the diploma.?

?I?ve been waiting for more than 30 years to say this, Dad, I always told you I?d come back and get my degree,? Gates, 51, told the crowd, which included his father, also named Bill. ?I?ll be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume,? said Gates in a reference to his plan to shift full-time into philanthropy.

At Harvard, Gates lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft?s chief executive, who stayed on to graduate and joined Microsoft in 1980. Gates dropped out to focus on Microsoft, which he founded in 1975.