Long ago, in 1981, Nintendo of America was renting a Tukwila warehouse. The landlord of this warehouse was Mario Segale.
At that time, Donkey Kong’s first game was in development. Mario was still known as Jumpman and Pauline was still known as Lady. However, Nintendo was looking for proper names for these characters. Pauline got her name from the wife of a Nintendo of America employee.
But Mario, well he got his name from Mario Segale. More or less because Miyamoto asked Mr Segale for some input.
Mario Segale
Sadly, Mario Segale has passed away at the age of 84. According to Kotaku, he was “surrounded by his family in Tukwila, Washington”. Kotaku says that his obituary describes him as “someone who loved hunting, fishing, his airplane, and his view of the Puget Sound”.
The obituary also says that “while he was the inspiration for the name of Nintendo’s ‘Super Mario’ from when they were tenants in his business park in the 1970’s, he always ducked the notoriety and wanted to be known instead for what he accomplished in his life and not for what Mario became to be”.
Mr Segale, you are an unsong hero … we salute you for being that humble and not taking spotlight as namesake and the likes.
