Published , by Morgan Shaver
Published , by Morgan Shaver
The creator of the GIF, Stephen Wilhite, has passed away at the age of 74 from COVID. The news was reported by outlets like The Verge who spoke to Wilhite’s wife Kathleen. According to The Verge’s reporting, he was surrounded by family at the time of his passing.
During his life, Wilhite worked at CompuServe where he created the GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) in 1987. Even if you aren’t familiar with Wilhite by name, you’re undoubtedly familiar with his work, with GIFs being one of the most popular ways to share short pieces of media online like relatable reactions. GIFs weren’t originally created for this purpose, though. As noted by The Verge, CompuServe introduced them simply as a “way to distribute high-quality, high-resolution graphics in color.”
Talking about Wilhite’s work, his wife Kathleen explained, “He invented GIF all by himself – he actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it. He would figure out everything privately in his head and then go to town programming it on the computer.”
Another thing Wilhite is known for is sharing the correct pronunciation of the word GIF with outlets like The New York Times where he explained GIF is actually pronounced as “jif” with a soft G. In that interview with The New York Times, Wilhite also mentioned that one of his favorite GIFs is the one of the dancing baby, which you can see here.
In his obituary, which you can read through here, additional information about Wilhite is shared including his love of traveling and camping.
In closing, we’re extremely saddened to hear of Wilhite’s passing, even as his legacy lives on in one of the internet’s most popular reaction tools, the GIF. How have GIFs impacted your online experience in a positive way? What have some of your favorite GIFs been? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in honor of Stephen Wilhite.