Dennis Ritchie, Unix Co-Developer and C Programming Language Developer -- RIP

Dennis Ritchie
1941-2011

Dennis Ritchie isn't a household name outside of the tech world. However, inside the scientific realms where Bell Labs once reigned supreme, he was a profound force. A Harvard and MIT grad whose work shaped generations of technology, Ritchie died this week in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, just a few miles from the former Bell Labs campus. His obit appeared in today's New York Times.

Ritchie was unique among the nation's tech elite in that he was a rare, second generation Bell Labs scientist. His work included designing the C computer programming language and sharing in the development of the Unix operating system. Not bad. Ritchie's passing is also a reminder that the United States, for all the current hysteria over education, has managed over the past couple of generations to produce some damn bright men and women. Ritchie was one of them. He lived more or less in obscurity, except in the tech world, where he was a giant.

The blog from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University offers some interesting observations about Ritchie. (You have to scroll a bit to find the relevant entries.) The most striking one claims that it was on Ritchie's strong shoulders that others, including Apple and Google, were able to stand tall.