R.I.P. Dennis Ritchie, Computing Founding Father

Lisa Dusenbery bio ↓  ·  October 14th, 2011  ·  filed under Other

Dennis Ritchie created the C programming language (“the basis of nearly every programming and scripting tool”) and co-developed the Unix operating system. His death on October 8th fell in the shadow of that of Steve Jobs, but his work is seen as the building blocks of the modern world.

“In that way, Ritchie has shaped our world in much more fundamental ways than Steve Jobs or Bill Gates have. What sets him apart from them is that he did it all not in a quest for wealth or fame, but just out of intellectual curiosity.”

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Lisa Dusenbery is the assistant editor at The Rumpus. Besides writing, her interests include dancing, practicing winking, and the smell of basements. She is a recent convert to San Francisco, CA. More from this author →

One Response to “R.I.P. Dennis Ritchie, Computing Founding Father”

  1. Kreig Zimmerman Says:
    October 14th, 2011 at 8:23 am

    It should be noted that Unix and C are the building blocks upon which OS X and iOS were built — thus in a very real sense, no Ritchie, no iDevices.

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