The Man Who Brought GIFs to the World Dies of COVID
Stephen Wilhite revolutionized internet culture by bringing still images to life. The computer programmer invented the Graphics Interchange Format, otherwise known as the GIF, in 1987. But after a sudden case of COVID-19, the father of GIF died on March 14 in his hometown of Milford, Ohio.
“It came on suddenly. He woke up one morning and he said, ‘Honey, I don’t feel good. I don’t feel good at all,’” his wife Kathaleen Wilhite told NPR on Wednesday. The couple was retired and had plans to take their new camper on the road soon. But then Steve woke up ill on March 1. “He was running a fever, throwing up so badly,” Kathaleen said. “And then the next day he started coughing badly.”
Though Kathaleen had also contracted the virus, she took her husband to the hospital where he was soon placed in intensive care. Because of her own illness, she could not be at his side in the hospital until she tested negative on March 10.