FAREWELL

Modern Email Inventor Ray Tomlinson Dies

Credited with sending first electronic message.

Raymond Tomlinson, who is credited with inventing modern email, died on Saturday. He was 74. Raytheon Co., his employer, confirmed his death on Sunday. Tomlinson came up with the idea of electronic messages that could be sent from one network to another in 1971. The programmer also selected the “@” symbol to connect the username with the destination address. He sent was is now considered the first email while working in Boston as an engineer for research company Bolt, Beranek and Newman, which played a big role in developing an early version of the Internet known as ARPANET. The company was later acquired by Raytheon Co., where he worked up until the time of his death as a principal scientist.