Bill Atkinson dies at 74
Bill Atkinson, who was instrumental in creating the Mac, has died, according to his personal Facebook page:
We regret to write that our beloved husband, father, and stepfather Bill Atkinson passed away on the night of Thursday, June 5th, 2025, due to pancreatic cancer. He was at home in Portola Valley in his bed, surrounded by family. We will miss him greatly, and he will be missed by many of you, too. He was a remarkable person, and the world will be forever different because he lived in it. He was fascinated by consciousness, and as he has passed on to a different level of consciousness, we wish him a journey as meaningful as the one it has been to have him in our lives. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, stepson, stepdaughter, two brothers, four sisters, and dog, Poppy
Atkinson announced his diagnosis last November. He was a UC San Diego graduate1 who was recruited out of grad school by Steve Jobs.
Among his contributions were the QuickDraw screen-drawing system, “marching ants” to indicate selections, the Menu Bar, MacPaint, and HyperCard. He later worked at the groundbreaking startup General Magic and spent his later years as a photographer.
RIP to an all-time great.
- As a UCSD alum myself, I’m proud that many key figures in the early days of the Mac (most notably Atkinson, Jef Raskin, and Bud Tribble) were either students or faculty there. ↩