John Warnock

John Edward Warnock (October 6, 1940 – August 19, 2023) was an American computer scientist, inventor, technology businessman, and philanthropist best known for co-founding Adobe Systems Inc., the graphics and publishing software company, with Charles Geschke in 1982. Warnock was President of Adobe for his first two years and chairman and CEO for his remaining sixteen years at the company. Although he retired as CEO in 2001, he continued to co-chair the Adobe Board of Directors with Geschke until 2017. Warnock pioneered the development of graphics, publishing, web and electronic document technologies that have revolutionized the field of publishing and visual communications. Early life and education Warnock was born on October 6, 1940, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He failed mathematics in ninth grade before graduating from Olympus High School in 1958, however, Warnock went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and philosophy, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in electrical engineering (computer science), and an honorary degree in science, all from the University of Utah. At the University of Utah he was a member of the Gamma Beta Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He also received an honorary degree from the American Film Institute. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Marva M. Warnock, marrying in 1965. Marva is a former partner and graphic designer at Marsh Design in Palo Alto, California, and is known not only for creating the iconic Adobe logo, but also as a designer for nonprofit organizations. They have three children. Career He is known as the creative driving force behind Adobe System's initial software products: PostScript, Adobe Illustrator, and the PDF, and he continued to be involved in new product development throughout his career. "The thing I really enjoy is the invention process. I enjoy figuring out how to do things other people don't know how to do." Warnock's earliest publication and subject of his master's thesis was his 1964 proof of a theorem solving the Jacobson radical for row-finite matrices, which was originally posed by the American mathematician Nathan Jacobson in 1956.