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    Beloved creator of the GIF dies following complications from COVID, wife confirms

    Steve Wilhite, the creator of the GIF, died at age 74 due to complications from COVID-19.
    by Halisia Hubbard Mar 23, 2022 2 minutes
    Steve Wilhite, inventor of the GIF file format, poses in 2013 at the Webby Awards in New York City. That year, the Webby Awards honored Wilhite with a lifetime achievement award. He played a GIF as his acceptance speech, which iterated the pronunciation as "jif," not "gif."

    Steve Wilhite and his wife, Kathaleen Wilhite, had just purchased a new truck and camper in hopes of camping at some of their favorite spots in Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan when everything suddenly changed.

    On March 1, Steve Wilhite, the beloved creator of the GIF file format, contracted COVID-19.

    "It came on suddenly. He woke up one morning and he said, 'Honey, I don't feel good. I don't

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