We lost one of the great ones today, a good and generous man.

    Jef Raskin died of cancer on Saturday February 26th, after being sick for several months. A wonderful spirit and renaissance man, who inspired me and many others. He created the Macintosh project at Apple in 1979, naming it after his favorite apple. He left Apple to form Information Appliances, where he designed the Canon Cat with an innovative interface. He continued refining human interface design, publishing his ideas in   The Humane Interface (Addison Wesley, 2000.) The Humane Interface ideas are being implemented in the Raskin Center project Archy, where his son, Aza, is a programmer.

   His artwork was displayed at New York's Museum of Modern Art. He conducted the San Francisco Chamber Opera Society and wrote the score for a movie, "Smog Patterns," shown on PBS.  He has a patent for a "Construction Technique for an Airplane Wing," and was a noted model airplane designer, an accomplished archer, and an occasional race car driver.

Website is http://jef.raskincenter.org/home/index.html .There is also a collection of photographs and history at http://www.digibarn.com/friends/jef-raskin/index.html

Jennie Bourne and I are in the midst of making a movie about him http://www.jefthemovie.com .

His wife, Linda writes.

Dear Friends,
Jef died this evening, surrounded by friends and family, with some favorite music playing.  While I am
overcome by a profound sense of sadness and am not looking forward the days, weeks and years ahead
without him, I am also relieved that he did not suffer for a long time and that he is at peace and no longer
in pain. There will be a memorial service, time and date to be determined.

   Dave Burstein