Stephen Wilhite, best known for creating the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) image, has died at the age of 74.
The news was delivered by his wife Kathleen, who also confirmed that the developer died as a result of COVID-19.
Wilhite was part of the US communications company CompuServe for several years. In 1987 he led the team responsible for creating the GIF.
The idea was to develop an image format that would be easier to download over dial-up modem speeds.
He retired in the early 2000s and has since travelled, camped and built model trains in his basement.
“He invented the GIF himself; In fact, he made it at home and took it to work after perfecting it. He would figure it all out privately in his head and then go to town to program it into the computer,” his wife told The Verge.
Wilhite’s work will also be remembered for his contributions to areas such as web chat software and for receiving the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for inventing the GIF.
When word of the researcher’s death became known, his friends and former colleagues began posting reminiscences and messages in his memory on a memorial page, which can be found at this link.
According to Kathleen Wilhite, her husband passed away peacefully, accompanied by his immediate family. His obituary page states that “despite all his achievements, he was still a very humble, kind and good man”.