--- description: Tomlinson was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012 title: The Founder of Email, Ray Tomlinson, Dies image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17b8cfb70180e2b9/6988806ecf40a81cc8c4249b/ap_950034237447.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Founder of Email, Ray Tomlinson, Dies by [Leena Rao / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Leena Rao / Fortune Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 7, 2016 1:38 AM CUT  An undated photo provided by Raytheon BBN Technologies shows Raymond Tomlinson the inventor of modern email and selector of the "@" symbol. An undated photo provided by Raytheon BBN Technologies shows Raymond Tomlinson the inventor of modern email and selector of the "@" symbol.Raytheon/Internet Hall of Fame /AP by [Leena Rao / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Leena Rao / Fortune Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 7, 2016 1:38 AM CUT Ray Tomlinson, the man credited with founding email, has passed away at the age of 74, according to a report from the [_Sydney Morning Herald_.](http://www.smh.com.au/technology/web-culture/email-pioneer-ray-tomlinson-dead-at-74-20160306-gnbspq.html "undefined") According to the report, Tomlinson died of a heart attack. Tomlinson was a part a team of computer programmers at research and design company Bolt Beranek and Newman (now BBN Technologies) in Cambridge, Mass., and had begun [experimenting](http://fortune.com/2015/04/28/why-cant-we-kill-email/ "undefined") with internal messaging in 1971\. Tomlinson had an idea to send a text message between computers using a new network (and a predeccesor to the Internet) called Arpanet, routing it using an “@” symbol. He recalled the first email sent in an interview with NPR [from 2009](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120364591 "undefined"): “The keyboards were about 10 feet apart…I could wheel my chair from one to the other and type a message on one, and then go to the other, and then see what I had tried to send.” By the 1980s government and military personnel were actively using the system. And by the 1990s email had become one of two pillars of the budding consumer Internet, alongside the World Wide Web. Tomlinson was subsequently inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012. Tomlinson told NPR that he had a feeling that what he had discovered with the “@” symbol would have some impact. “What I didn’t imagine was how quickly that would happen,” he said. [_This article originally appeared on Fortune.com_](http://fortune.com/2016/03/06/ray-tomlinson-dies/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4249137/founder-of-email-ray-tomlinson-obituary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4249137/founder-of-email-ray-tomlinson-obituary/"},"headline":"The Founder of Email, Ray Tomlinson, Dies","datePublished":"2016-03-07T01:38:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:49:36.428Z","description":"Tomlinson was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012","url":"https://time.com/4249137/founder-of-email-ray-tomlinson-obituary/","keywords":["Tech","remembrance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17b8cfb70180e2b9/6988806ecf40a81cc8c4249b/ap_950034237447.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Leena Rao / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17b8cfb70180e2b9/6988806ecf40a81cc8c4249b/ap_950034237447.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ray Tomlinson","caption":"Ray Tomlinson","creditText":"Raytheon/Internet Hall of Fame /AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4249137/founder-of-email-ray-tomlinson-obituary/","name":"The Founder of Email, Ray Tomlinson, Dies"}}]}] ```