RIP Dr. Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe and co-inventor of the PDF

Via Adobe’s official statement:

It is with profound sadness that Adobe shares the passing of the company’s beloved co-founder, Dr. Charles Geschke. Dr. Geschke passed away on Friday, surrounded by his family.

I’ve been using Adobe’s products for nearly 20 years and knew so little about Geschke and his life. He’d founded Adobe in 1982 with Dr. John Warnock, who was his colleague at Xerox in the 70s. He served as COO from 1986–1994 and retired in 2000. He also survived a kidnapping attempt in 1992:

Charles Geschke, 52, president and chief operating officer of Adobe Systems Inc., had been in the house in Hollister, 60 miles south of San Jose, since he was seized by two men as he arrived for work Tuesday, FBI agents said.

″The two men called him to their car to ask him a question, then at gunpoint took him away and secreted him,″ said FBI agent Richard Held. Geschke was abducted at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, about 10 miles northwest of San Jose.

Along with Dr. Warnock, he received the National Medal of Technology in 2009 to go with his Computer Entrepreneur Award from the IEEE Computer Society and the American Electronics Association Medal of Honor.

See also: Chuck Geschke on the simple principles that drove 30 years of success and challenges, change and values he faced in his career.

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