Apple CEO Tim Cook has shared a public tribute following the passing of Apple Fellow Bill Atkinson, one of the most legendary figures in Apple’s history.
Atkinson died on June 5 at the age of 74, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Last night, Tim Cook took to X to honor his legacy:
‘The best computer programmer who ever lived’
Atkinson was more than a brilliant programmer. He was a creative force behind some of Apple’s most iconic innovations. A core member of the original Macintosh team, he created MacPaint, wrote the QuickDraw graphics library, and later pioneered HyperCard. If you’ve ever done as much as click on a link or admire the elegance of a rounded rectangle in a UI, you’ve been touched by Atkinson’s legacy.
He joined Apple in 1978 as employee #51, and quickly became one of Steve Jobs’ most trusted lieutenants.
As Wired’s Steven Levy wrote in his beautiful remembrance, when Jobs needed QuickDraw to support rounded rectangles (something Atkinson initially saw as unnecessary), Jobs famously walked him around the block until he noticed how ubiquitous they were in the real world.
That attention to detail, and insistence that computers reflect the world around us, defined the Mac’s design philosophy. And Atkinson helped translate that vision into working code.
As John Gruber wrote yesterday:
“I say this with no hyperbole: Bill Atkinson may well have been the best computer programmer who ever lived. Without question, he’s on the short list. What a man, what a mind, what gifts to the world he left us.”
Atkinson wasn’t just part of Apple’s story. He literally helped write it, and for that, we all owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude. If you are unfamiliar with Atkinson and this part of Apple’s history, it feels timely to take some time today and dive a bit into that, ahead of tomorrow’s WWDC keynote.
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