He was one of the two founders of Adobe: Who is Charles Geschke?
They developed groundbreaking software that revolutionized the way people create and communicate. Geschke was abducted in 1992. One morning, on his way to work, two men caught him at gunpoint and held him hostage, demanding ransom. So what happened next?
Charles Geschke, one of the founding partners of Adobe, one of the biggest companies in the technology world today, passed away on Friday, April 16, 2021. Charles, who died at the age of 81, spent most of his life at Adobe.
Charles Matthew "Chuck" Geschke (September 11, 1939 – April 16, 2021) was an American businessman and computer scientist best known for founding the graphics and publishing software company Adobe Inc. with John Warnock in 1982, and co-creating the PDF document format with John Warnock.
Adobe, one of the biggest companies in the technology world, offers dozens of software and services that appeal to every field from graphic design to web-based services to its users. Today, the company, which has close to 23,000 employees and a market value of 250 billion dollars, was founded in California in 1982 by Charles Geschke and John Warnock.
The successful businessman, known as Chuck, played an active role in developing the Portable Document Format (PDF) technology that we all use today. Let's briefly tell the successful growth story of Geschke and Adobe.
Dedicated his life to Adobe
In 1982, Dr Charles Geschke, his colleague at Xerox, Dr. He founded Adobe with John Warnock. The company's first product, named after the stream that flows behind Warnock's house, was PostScript, which revolutionized desktop publishing. Dr. Geschke worked for the company as COO (Chief Operating Officer) from December 1986 to July 1994.
Meanwhile, Geschke assumed the presidency of the company in 1989 and held this position until his retirement in April 2000. However, Geschke's relationship with the company he co-founded did not end when he retired. He and Warnock served as chairman of the board from September 1972 to January 2017. He also continued to serve as a member of the board of directors until April 2020.
Adobe, which has presented many successful and exemplary technologies to the world throughout its history, enabled Geschke, who is mentioned in this success, to receive the 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation from US President Obama. He also deserved to win the Computer Entrepreneur Award from the IEEE and the Medal of Honor from the American Electronics Association.
Geschke survived an abduction attempt in 1992. On his way to work one morning, two men caught him at gunpoint and held him hostage for four days, demanding a ransom. He was eventually rescued by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Geschke retired as president of Adobe in 2000 after running the company for nearly two decades. He served as co-chairman of the Adobe board with Warnock from 1997 to 2017, and was a board member until April 2020, when he became an Emeritus board member.
After his death, his partner Warnock explained: "I could never have dreamed of having a better, cuter, or more talented business partner. The absence of Chuck in our lives will leave a huge void and everyone who knows him will agree."