Raymond Tomlinson, the inventor of modern email, died Saturday. He was 74.
Up until his death, Tomlinson was a principal scientist with Raytheon, and the company announced his death on Sunday. Tomlinson received degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MIT, and in 1971, he invented the first email that could be sent to someone at a specific address. It was made for the ARPANET system, a precursor to the internet created for the government, The Associated Press reports. "It wasn't an assignment at all, he was just fooling around," Raytheon spokeswoman Joyce Kuzman said. "He was looking for something to do with ARPANET."
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