Stephen Wilhite: GIF Creator Dies From Severe COVID Complications

• Stephen Wilhite, the man responsible for looping images known as GIFs, has died at the age of 74

• The GIF Creator died last week, according to an obituary that was seen at an Ohio funeral home

• According to Verge, his wife Kathaleen confirmed that the death of the brilliant creator was a result of complications from COVID 19

Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead inventors of “Graphics Interchange Format,” images, popularly known as GIFs, has died at the age of 74.

News of his death was seen on an obituary at an Ohio funeral home and was also confirmed by his wife Kathaleen, according to The Verge.

Kathleen revealed that was surrounded by family and friends when he died and his death was as a result of complications from COVID 19.

His obituary page states:

“…even with all his accomplishments, he (Wilhite) remained a very humble, kind, and good man.”

Stephen Wilhite worked on GIF while he was employed at CompuServe in the 1980s. He retired in the early 2000s and spent the rest of his life traveling, camping, and building model trains in his basement.

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What are GIFs?

GIFs or Graphics Interchange Format are mostly used for reactions, messages, and jokes on social media these days. This is however not what these looping images were actually designed for.

In the 1980s CompuServe distributed GIFs as a way to send high-quality, high-resolution graphics despite the constraint of slow internet. According to his wife, Stephen Wilhite worked on the project and perfected it at home alone before taking it to work the next day.

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