Dr. Charles “Chuck” Geschke, Adobe Co-Founder

It’s a sad weekend for tech. Dr. Charles “Chuck” Geschke, co-founder of Adobe, passed away on April 16th, 2021, at 81. Alongside Dr. John Warnock, he started Adobe in 1982 after leaving Xerox. Chuck played key roles as COO, president, and board chairman until 2017, and stayed on the board until 2020.

But it’s the tech he helped build that really sticks with us. Geschke and Warnock developed PostScript — a game-changing page description language that, along with the Apple Macintosh and Aldus PageMaker, sparked the desktop publishing revolution of the 1980s. Then in 1993, they launched the PDF, a format that preserves layout across devices and platforms — still essential for everything from publishing to everyday signed forms.

Beyond Adobe, Geschke supported innovation through projects like the Tech Museum of Innovation and earned the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama in 2009. He even survived a high-profile kidnapping in 1992 before being rescued.

Geschke leaves behind a family — wife, three kids, and seven grandkids — and a tech legacy that includes Adobe’s biggest hits like Photoshop. His impact will be felt long after he’s gone.

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