Stephen Wilhite, the inventor of GIF or Graphics Interchange Format, died on March 14, 2022, due to Covid complications. He contracted Covid-19 in March 2022 and passed away at the age of 74 at his home in Ohio, United States.
Today, GIFs have become an integral part of communication on social media and networking sites. Wilhite invented the GIF while he was working at a tech company CompuServe in 1987.
A debate once unfolded on the internet whether GIF was pronounced with hard or soft G. Wilhite said in an interview in 2013 with The New York Times, “The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘Jif.’ End of story.”
“He retired as Chief Architect from America Online, was the inventor of GIF, and received the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in New York (in 2013). He was an avid camper and loved travelling and camping,” his obituary page said.
A colleague wrote Wilhite’s obituary page, “Enjoyed working with Steve in the 1990s at CompuServe. He would lend me his whetstone so I could sharpen my pocketknife while we discussed deliverables and dates.”
“This man inadvertently shaped the Internet and is the godfather of all the memes on it. Thank you for all the hours of joy,” another wrote.
Twitterati pays tribute to Wilhite with GIFs.
Published on
March 24, 2022
