Xerox has announced that Larry Tesler has died at the age of 74. You may never have heard of Tesler but you have definitely used some of the features that he created. He is known for co-developing the cut, copy, and paste functionality that’s present on most operating systems as well as other functions such as find and replace.
Aside from working at Xerox where he developed the aforementioned functions, he also worked in different roles at Apple, Amazon, Yahoo!, and 23andMe. At Apple, he had a hand in making software for Apple Lisa and Macintosh before becoming the vice president of Apple’s Newton Group which worked on the ill-fated Apple Newton PDA.
After Apple, he operated his own business which didn’t succeed financially. He then made his way to Amazon where he became a vice president of engineering and later the vice president of shopping experience where he oversaw improvements to the website’s interface. In 2005, he moved to Silicon Valley from Seattle and started a job at Yahoo! as vice president of User Experience and Design. In 2008, Tesler joined 23andMe, the popular genetics firm. After leaving that firm in 2009, he became an independent consultant.
If you want to find out more about Larry Tesler, you can find his personal website and work website which are still online.
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