Stephen Wilhite, creator of the GIF, has died

Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for The Webby Awards

Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead inventors of the GIF, died last week from chronic bronchitis, according to his wife. He was surrounded by his family when he died. Even with all his accomplishments, he remained a very humble, kind, and good man, according to his obituary page.

Stephen Wilhite was employed at CompuServe in the 1980s and worked on Graphics Interchange Format, which is now used for reactions, messages, and jokes. He retired in the early 2000s and spent his time building model trains in his basement.

The reason Wilhite created the format was not because of GIFs. CompuServe introduced them in the late 1980s as a way to distribute high-quality, high-resolution graphics in color at a time when internet speeds were slow compared to what they are today.

The Daily Dot has a good explanation of how the format became an internet phenomenon.

Wilhite was very clear about how he intended for it to be said. He told The New York Times that the Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are incorrect. It is a soft sound.

He used an animation to give his acceptance speech for the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the invention of the GIF. After 25 years, they finally honored that achievement that he did, and that was the thing he was proudest of.

Stephen was described as a hard worker who had a major influence on the company's success by several messages on his obituary page.

The couple traveled together after Stephen retired. When they went to the Grand Canyon, she said, he wanted to show her. She said that the couple went camping all the time.

He liked to work on his model train set in the basement. He did the electric work for the layout.

The dancing baby meme is one of Wilhite's favorites, he said in the Times interview. To you, Mr. Wilhite. Thanks for creating the image format that made it easier to download color images over dial-up before they became one of the internet's own languages.

Gif via The New York Times