Adobe co-founder, Utah native, John Warnock dies at 82

Adobe co-founder and Utah native alumni John Warnock died on Saturday aged 82, Adobe said in a statement Sunday.

The cause of his death was not disclosed.

"It is a sad day for the Adobe community and the industry for which he has been an inspiration for decades," Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said in an email sent to employees.

"John's brilliance and technology innovations changed the world," Narayen said in the statement.

Warnock graduated from the University of Utah with two bachelor's degrees in 1961. One undergraduate degree was mathematics and the second in philosophy.

He would continue his studies at the University of Utah over the next few years, receiving a master's degree in mathematics in 1964 and a doctorate in electrical engineering/computer science 1969, according to a previous statement by the university.

"While working on his doctorate, Warnock, collaborating with a colleague, wrote the first computer-based registration program used at the U.," according to a statement made by the university in 2020.

Richard B. Brown, the dean of the College of Engineering, said the University of Utah was among the first in the nation to offer registration by computer, an effort that Warnock worked on "for days almost around the clock," Brown is quoted in the 2020 university statement.

After his graduation from the U., Warnock went forward in the computer fields while working for Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation and IBM. While working for Xerox, he was involved with the development of a system for interactive graphics. He was also involved in a program to advance printer technology. Xerox was not interested in developing the concept further, so Warnock and colleague Charles Geschke struck out on their own to continue their work on it.

This effort lead to Warnock and Geschke co-founding Adobe in 1982. According to the 2020 statement by the U., "the duo's innovations included scalable type, computer graphics and printing processes." This revolutionized desktop publishing. Adobe's Acrobat and Photoshop are among the software programs that were pioneers in the industry.

Adobe is a major presence in Utah with its campus on Silicon Slopes in Lehi. Adobe's foothold in Utah was first established in 2009 and further grew with its Lehi campus that opened in 2012.

Speaking in a virtual commencement ceremony to University graduates in 2020, Warnock counseled the graduates to move up and move forward.

"The rest of your life is not a spectator sport. Your job in life is to be an active player, to make the world a better place," he said.

Warnock retired as CEO of Adobe in 2000 and was chairman of the board, a position he shared with Geschke, until 2017, according to Reuters.

A Utah native, Warnock was raised in Holladay and attended Olympus High School.

Warnock described how his high school math teacher George Barton played a pivotal role in his life. This teacher taught his students how to learn, focus, work and solve problems, Warnock said.

"His approach was really quite simple. He instructed us to pick up a college-level textbook for algebra, solve every problem in the book, then move on to the next subject, trigonometry, and do the same. And after that, go on to analytic geometry. By following his advice and solving a lot of problems, my grades in math and all other classes improved, and I went from C's to A's and B's," Warnock said.

Warnock has received numerous awards and accolades, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, bestowed upon him by President Barack Obama in 2008. He was also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Warnock turned much of his philanthropy back to the University of Utah. He and his wife Marva Warnock provided the "foundational gift of nearly $6 million for the John and Marva Warnock Engineering Building at the U and also created three presidential endowed chairs in computer science, mathematics and fine arts," according to the 2020 statement by the university.

Warnock is survived by his wife and three children.