Julian LeFay, the man often credited as "the father of The Elder Scrolls," has died at the age of 59, his creative partners announced this week.
"It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that we inform our community of the passing of Julian LeFay, our beloved Technical Director and co-founder of Once Lost Games," his colleagues wrote in a Bluesky post.
LeFay spent most of the 1990s at Bethesda Softworks, culminating in his work on The Elder Scrolls series into the late '90s.
On Thursday, pioneering computer engineer and Apple veteran William "Bill" Atkinson died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Portola Valley, California, surrounded by family. He was 74. "We regret to write that our beloved husband, father, and stepfather Bill Atkinson passed away," his family wrote on Facebook. "He was a remarkable person, and the world will be forever different because he lived in it."
As Apple employee No. 51, Atkinson transformed abstract computer science into intuitive visual experiences that millions would use daily: His QuickDraw graphics engine made the Macintosh interface possible; he introduced the wider world to bitmap editing with MacPaint; and HyperCard presaged hyperlinked elements of the World Wide Web by years.
A screenshot of Bill Atkinson's MacPaint, released with the Macintosh in January 1984.
Credit:
Benj Edwards / Apple
"I say this with no hyperbole: Bill Atkinson may well have been the best computer programmer who ever lived," wrote veteran Apple analyst John Gruber on Daring Fireball in a tribute. "Without question, he's on the short list. What a man, what a mind, what gifts to the world he left us."
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