Jef Raskin, Macintosh Creator, Dies at 61

Jack Writes:Jef Raskin, Apple employee No. 31 and the man who set the Macintosh on rails died on Feb 26th, suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Raskins visions greatly influenced the way the user interface of personal computers looks today, developing ideas like icon based desktops or drag-and-drop to a great extend.

Raskin joined Apple Computer in 1978 as employee number 31 and headed the Macintosh development until 1982.

Raskin left Apple in 1982, two years before the Macintosh went on sale. He founded Information Appliance, where he designed the Canon Cat computer for Canon USA, a product which never became a commercial success.

In 2000 he published a book, "The Humane Interface," that is widely assigned at universities.

In recent years he was a professor at the University of Chicago.
He founded the Jef Raskin Center for Humane Interfaces where he worked on Archy, an open-source software program intended to push interfaces in new ways. This project will be continued by his son Raza.

Source: http://gaming.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_4797.php/Jef_Raskin_Dies_at_Age_61
ALSO
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119835,00.asp