[BREAKING] GIF Creator Dies At 74—Friends and Ex-Colleagues Share Their Heartfelt Messages for Stephen Wilhite

GIF Creator Dies At 74—Friends and Ex-Colleagues Share Their Messages for Stephen Wilhite
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 21: Steve Wilhite, inventor of the GIF file, attends the 17th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on May 21, 2013 in New York City. Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for The Webby Awards

The humble inventor died on Monday, Mar. 14. Before he passed away, he retired as being America Online's Chief Architect.

He spent his time camping and traveling with his beloved family. Despite being popular because of his popular GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) creation, he remained humble and a kind man.

RIP GIF Creator: Who is Stephen Wilhite?

According to The Verge's latest report, Stephen Wilhite (also known as Steve Wilhite) is the one who created the GIF that people use in their messages today.

GIF Creator Dies At 74—Friends and Ex-Colleagues Share Their Messages for Stephen Wilhite
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 21: Steve Wilhite, inventor of the GIF file, poses with an award backstage at the 17th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on May 21, 2013 in New York City. Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for The Webby Awards

His invention is quite popular since it contains popular memes. However, this is not the main reason he developed the GIF.

Wilhite created this technology to distribute high-quality and high-resolution graphics in color during a time when internet speeds were very slow.

"He invented GIF all by himself - he actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it," said Kathaleen R. Wilhite, the wife of Stephen.

She added that after 25 years of hard work, the invention of her beloved husband was finally received the recognition he deserved.

Thanks to his very creative tech, he received the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in New York. Kathaleen further shared that the GIF is the thing that his husband is mostly proud of.

GIF Creator's Friends and Ex-Colleagues Share Final Messages

The Megie Funeral Home posted a tribute wall for the deceased GIF creator. In this section, you can see that many individuals are sharing their final messages for Stephen Wilhite.

Lynne Gard Poston, an ex-colleague of Wilhite, said that he used to work with Steve at CompuServe. He said that he always admired the good guy since he is very smart and kind.

"I worked with Steve at CompuServe for about 12 years beginning in 1988. He was my project manager, my boss, my colleague, and my friend," said Jane Henderson, another ex-coworker of the inventor.

If you want to see more of these messages, you can visit this link.

In other news, Twitch streamer Alinity recently filed a report against fans showing up at her house. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves shared that he is not knowledgeable when it comes to cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

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Written by: Griffin Davis

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