John Warnock was a computer scientist and tech businessman who co-founded Adobe Systems, makers of software mainstays like Illustrator, Photoshop, and the ubiquitous PDF file format.
- Died: August 19, 2023 (Who else died on August 19?)
- Details of death: Died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 82.
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John Warnock’s legacy
Warnock’s first forays into STEM weren’t particularly successful – he failed mathematics at Olympus High School in Utah. However, he went on to earn mathematics and philosophy degrees from the University of Utah, as well as a doctorate in electrical engineering. Both his masters and doctoral theses involved complex mathematics, the latter landing on the cover of Scientific American in 1970. The stage was now set for his future ground-breaking successes.
After stints with a few tech companies in the 1970s, including Xerox, Warnock paired up with Charles Geschke in 1982 to form Adobe Systems and focus on desktop publishing technology. In 1986, they introduced Adobe Illustrator, the first of their major publishing applications. In 1991, Warnock helped outline the file format that would become the Portable Document Format, or PDF, still one of the most widely used digital document types in the world. Throughout his tenure, Warnock was at the forefront of the company’s attempts to push technical boundaries.
Warnock served as CEO of Adobe until 2000 and chairman until 2017. He held seven patents and won an array of awards for his work in the tech field. They include the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, awarded by President Barack Obama to both Warnock and Geschke in 2009; the Bodley Medal, awarded by Oxford University’s Bodleian Library; and the Marconi Prize.
His influence wasn’t limited to the world of Adobe programs. He was a past chairman of the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California, and served on the board of directors for Knight-Ridder, Netscape Communications, Salon Media Group, and others. Warnock was also on the board of trustees of the American Film Institute and Sundance Institute, among other positions, and was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
Tributes to John Warnock
Full obituary: CNN Business
