Overview

• Bill Atkinson died June 5, 2025, at age 74 from pancreatic cancer at his home in Portola Valley, California.
• Recruited by Steve Jobs in 1978 as Apple’s 51st employee, he became a core member of the original Macintosh development team.
• His QuickDraw engine and innovations such as the menu bar, double-click gesture and selection lasso formed the backbone of the Mac’s user-friendly design.
• Atkinson created MacPaint in 1984 and HyperCard in 1987, pioneering digital drawing tools and hypermedia authoring that presaged the World Wide Web.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook paid tribute to Atkinson as a "true visionary," praising his groundbreaking work and lasting influence on modern computing.