Adobe on Sunday shared the passing of the company’s co-founder, Dr. John Warnock, who died on Saturday surrounded by his family.
Warnock was a Xerox PARC alumnus and the inventor of the PostScript language, among many other things.
Dr. Warnock co-founded Adobe in 1982 with Dr. Charles Geschke after meeting as colleagues at Xerox. Their first product was Adobe PostScript, groundbreaking technology that sparked the desktop publishing revolution. Dr. Warnock retired as CEO in 2000 and he was chairman of the board, a position he shared with Dr. Geschke, until 2017. He was a member of the Board of Directors since then. In recognition of their technical achievements, Dr. Warnock was awarded the United States of Amrica’s National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the Computer Entrepreneur Award from the IEEE Computer Society, the American Electronics Association Medal of Achievement, and the Marconi Prize for contributions to information science and communications.
Like most of the good ideas developed at PARC, Xerox really didn’t have a clue what to do with it and so Geschke and Warnock left to form a company to do the job. The company, Adobe Systems was founded in 1982 and was named after the creek that ran past Warnock’s garden in Los Altos (California)…
They would market the PostScript language, fonts and laser printer controllers. In other words, become an OEM (Other Equipment Manufacturer), a supplier of software.
It is said that PostScript took 20 man-years of programmer time to perfect. It was certainly the most complex piece of software to be offered for use on the growing number of personal computers. To run fast it needed a powerful computer all of its own and for a while the cost of the hardware was a problem.
This is where Apple and Steve Jobs enter the picture…
The 128KByte Mac of the time plus a dot-matrix printer just wasn’t a viable business system. In 1984 the HP LaserJet was just beginning to make an impact in the PC world, but it produced output that looked like a typewriter. It really was just a dot matrix printer brain inside a laser printer body.
Steve Jobs made the bold decision to make a laser printer for the Mac with output that looked typeset. To do it he wisely bought 15% of Adobe at a cost of $2.5 million. The Apple LaserWriter, including the controller card, was designed and built by Apple. Adobe supplied the software and the fonts. The result was the desktop publishing revolution and the rise of the Mac.
Adobe Chair and CEO Shantanu Narayen sent the following email to all Adobe employees:
It is with profound sadness that I share that our beloved co-founder Dr. John Warnock passed away at the age of 82.
John’s brilliance and technology innovations changed the world. It is a sad day for the Adobe community and the industry for which he has been an inspiration for decades.
John and Dr. Chuck Geschke founded Adobe in 1982 with PostScript, sparking the desktop publishing revolution. His vision and passion enabled Adobe to deliver groundbreaking innovations such as Illustrator, the ubiquitous PDF file format and Acrobat, Photoshop and Premiere Pro, defining the desktop era and unleashing creativity and opportunity for millions of people.
John has been widely acknowledged as one of the greatest inventors in our generation with significant impact on how we communicate in words, images and videos. Among many other awards, President Barack Obama awarded him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, one of the nation’s highest honors bestowed on scientists, engineers and inventors, in 2008; he received the Computer Entrepreneur Award from the IEEE Computer Society; the American Electronics Association Medal of Achievement; and the high honor of the Marconi Prize for contributions to information science and communications. John retired as CEO in 2000 and he was chairman of the board, a position he shared with Chuck, until 2017. Since then, he continued to serve on the Board of Directors.
While the impact that his innovations have had are countless, it is his indomitable spirit, passion and belief in building a company with strong values that has impacted all of us who have had the good fortune of working at Adobe. John was incredibly insightful on which technologies would delight customers as well as create business value. John and his wife, Marva, who is a graphics artist, used our products constantly and set the standard for customer empathy.
My interactions with John over the past 25 years have been the highlight of my professional career. At breakfasts with John and Chuck, we would imagine the future, however, it was our varied conversations on rare books, art, world history and politics that gave me unique insight into John, who was truly a renaissance man (we also loved rooting jointly for the Warriors!). While he was my role model and mentor, I am most grateful to count him as a friend.
As I reflect on this loss that will leave a huge void in our lives, I think back to a few months ago when I saw John for the 30th anniversary of Acrobat. After the event, where we celebrated the impact of Acrobat and PDF on the world of communication, we talked about the potential of Firefly to transform the next generation of creative technology. With a twinkle in his eye, he said that he was amazed with the progress and as always had feedback on how we could make it better!
My thoughts are with Marva and his entire family. There is nothing he would like more than to continue his amazing legacy so let’s continue to make him proud.
Shantanu
Dr. Warnock is survived by his wife Marva Warnock and his three children.
MacDailyNews Take: R.I.P., John Warnock.
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