Kathaleen Wilhite, the wife of Steve Wilhite, the beloved creator of the GIF file format has confirmed that her husband died from COVID-19 complications.<\/p>\n
Steve Wilhite contracted COVID-19 on March 1. He was taken to the hospital after showing various symptoms including a fever and a bad cough. He however passed away on March 14 at the hospital.<\/p>\n
Wilhite created the GIF file format in 1987 while working at CompuServe. Steve stayed at the company working on various systems until 2001 when he retired after experiencing a stroke.<\/p>\n
“Without the .gif, the internet as we know it would be a different place. It’s a tight medium that you can learn alot about storytelling within, especially tuned for the attention span of the internet,” Jason Reed, the art director at the Daily Dot said.<\/p>\n
People around the world have continued to mourn and celebrate Steve Wilhite for a life well spent and his remarkable invention.<\/p>\n
“I want to offer my sincerest condolences to Stephen Wilhite’s family. It is incredibly saddening to hear. Forever in his debt; it was by the power of his GIF codec, that I traversed across the United States of America, smoked drugs with celebrities, and created friendships with countless amounts of people along the way,” Jimmy McCain, co-founder of the artist collective known as Mr. GIF said.<\/p>\n