Remembering Dr. John Warnock — 1940–2023
Dr. John Warnock co-founded Adobe with Dr. Chuck Geschke in 1982 with PostScript, sparking the desktop publishing revolution. His vision and passion enabled Adobe to deliver groundbreaking innovations such as Illustrator; the ubiquitous PDF file format and Acrobat; Photoshop; and Premiere Pro, defining the desktop era and unleashing creativity and opportunity for millions of people.
John has been widely acknowledged as one of the greatest inventors in our generation with significant impact on how we communicate in words, images, and videos. In 2008, President Barack Obama awarded him and Chuck the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, one of the nation’s highest honors bestowed on scientists, engineers, and inventors. Among many other awards, John also received the Computer Entrepreneur Award from the IEEE Computer Society, the American Electronics Association Medal of Achievement, and the high honor of the Marconi Prize for contributions to information science and communications. He holds 20 patents.
John retired as CEO in 2000 and he was chairman of the board, a position he shared with Chuck, until 2017. Since then, he continued to serve on the Board of Directors.
While the impact his innovations have had is immeasurable, it is his indomitable spirit, passion, and belief in building a company with strong values that have impacted all of us in the Adobe community. He leaves an indelible mark on the company, the technology industry, and the world.