Raymond Samuel Tomlinson, or Ray Tomlinson, was born on April 23rd, 1941 in New York. He pursued his studies at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological university in the USA, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He was also a long time computer engineer for the Bolt, Beranek and Newman Technologies, the firm that had received the contract to create ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet.
His invention of the email in the early 1970s had been path breaking, although coincidental. His later interviews reveal that Tomlinson, after showing his invention to a colleague has famously said- “Don’t tell anyone! This isn’t what we’re supposed to be working on”. The first email, thus, was not given enough importance, and is believed to be something like ‘QWERTYUIOP’.
Tomlinson received several international awards for his landmark achievements.
On March 5th, 2016, Tomlinson died of heart attack at his home in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
