Inventor of modern email, Ray Tomlinson, dies

Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of modern email, has died, according to his employer Raytheon.

Email existed in a limited capacity before Mr Tomlinson’s work, in that electronic messages could be shared amid multiple people within a limited framework. But until his invention in 1971 of the first network person-to-person email there was no way to send something to a specific person at a specific address.

Born in 1941, Mr Tomlinson chose the “@” symbol to connect the username with the destination address and it has now become a cultural icon.

While he was a holder of numerous awards and other accolades, colleagues say he was humble and modest, and surprisingly, not a frequent checker of email.