Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe, died
Charles Geschke
The innovations of the company founded in 1982, such as pdf, Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, have revolutionized the way of working in many sectors
Source: Paul Sakuma His inventions have revolutionized the working in publishing, graphics, photography and videomaking, with programs that are now found in every computer. Adobe cofounder Charles Geschke passed away on April 16 at the age of 81. It was the CEO of the company, Shantanu Narayen, who informed employees by email, recalling the human aspect of Geshcke, as well as the character of the innovative manager. "If his inventions changed the world, it was his commitment to people, purpose and culture that deeply impacted us at Adobe", we read: "He believed that good ideas could come from anywhere. of the company and that it is not just 'what' but 'how' we do it, which counts ”.Charles Geschke (Adobe) Geschke launched the Adobe adventure in 1982, along with colleague John Warnock. The two worked together at the Xerox research center in Palo Alto, where Geschke then 43 was involved in computer science, as a scientist and researcher. They decided to leave the company on their own and their first product was Adobe PostScript, a desktop publishing program.
“Chuck has instilled a relentless drive for innovation in the company, which has led to some of the most transformative software, including the ubiquitous pdf, Acrobat, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and Photoshop, ”Narayen recreated. From that startup born 39 years ago, Adobe has become a global giant that in 2020 achieved 12.87 billion dollars in turnover, with a growth of 15% which aims to maintain constant also for the current year, exceeding 15 billion, according to the latest quarterly report of 2020.
The career and qualifications achieved testify to Geschke's cultural depth, with a doctorate in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, a degree in mathematics and a degree in classical literature, both from Xavier University in Cincinnati. Over the years he has been awarded the National Medal for Technology and Innovation, one of the largest awards reserved for scientists, engineers and inventors in the United States. He also received the Medal of Honor from the American Electronics Association and the IT Entrepreneur Award from the Ieee computer society.
In the company he was operational manager from December 1986 to July 1994 and during this period, in 1992, he was kidnapped for the purpose of kidnapping for four days. After the payment of a $ 650,000 ransom, the two criminals were followed, arrested and sentenced. Geschke then became president of Adobe from April 1989 until retirement in April 2000. He was chairman of the corporate board for twenty years with Warnock until January 2017 and a member of the board until April 2020, remaining with title emeritus until end. "I could never have imagined having a better, more capable and pleasant business partner. Having no more Chuck in our lives will leave a great void and those who have known him will agree ", declared his longtime friend, John Warnock, moved.
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Adobe co-founder Charles Geschke dies
Computer scientist Charles Geschke has died aged 81. He co-founded Adobe, which, with Apple, created the desktop publishing industry, before famously falling out with Steve Jobs over Adobe Flash.
As Adobe continues moving its flagship apps like Photoshop to Apple Silicon, its co-founder Charles Geschke has died from cancer in his home in Los Altos, California. Geschke and John Warnock had worked together at Xerox in the very early 1980s on what was effectively the earliest version of PostScript.
When Xerox did not want to pursue that project, the two men founded Adobe in 1982. Literally founding it in a garage, they named the company after a creek that ran behind Warnock's House.
'We were best friends,' John Warnock told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. 'We never had an argument.'
Their first project was PostScript, which became central to how Apple's LaserWriter and Aldus PageMaker dominated the printing market. These three firms together effectively created what was known as the desktop publishing (DTP), but ultimately just became publishing.
The entire publishing industry was transformed by these three companies together. To this day, the giant majority of publishers use Adobe InDesign.
However, the relationship between Apple and Adobe has at times become adversarial. Steve Jobs criticized it for being slow to update its apps like Photoshop and Illustrator as the Mac moved from 68000 to PowerPC and Intel.
Adobe did claim that Apple's decision was a business one, but Jobs gave a series of practical and considered reasons why iPhone would not and should not support Flash, in its then-current form.
His reasoning, plus the overwhelming success of the iPhone, led to the complete death of the product over the next decade, with Adobe eventually ending it in 2021.
Charles Geschke maintained that Adobe always and consistently supported Apple, throughout the history of the two companies.
'We never abandoned Apple,' Geschke said in 2010, when discussing Flash. 'Apple now seems to be abandoning at least one aspect of our product line right now. No, we never abandoned them. We've always ported our apps simultaneously to both platforms.'
'There have been times when Apple has changed its strategy on hardware or on operating systems that didn't meet our product cycle,' he continued, 'so there have been periods of maybe six months where we didn't keep up with their latest release.'
'But that's our own business model; we can only afford to re-implement our products at a certain rate. We have never, ever abandoned Apple and we don't want to abandon them today.'
According to The Wall Street Journal, Geschke is survived by his wife, Nan Geschke, as well as three children and seven grandchildren.
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