His name was Raymond Tomlinson, although he was more commonly known as Ray, just like many other people named Raymond.
While he did not actually invent the e-mail, as there has been much debate about when it actually came into existence, Tomlinson did something that is still an integral part of the modern e-mail.
In 1971, armed with an Engineering Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and while working with Bolt Beranek and Newman in Boston, Massachusetts, he invented the modern e-mail by inserting the @ sign that is still in use today.
He chose the @ to connect the username with the destination address.
E-mail existed in limited capacity before he discovered that messages could be sent shared amid multiple people on a limited framework.
Until his invention, there was no way to send e-mail to a specific person at a specific address.
He invented and sent the first e-mail on the ARPANET system, a computer network funded by the US government that connected many research stations in the country.
The ARPANET is considered the precursor to the internet.
Tomlinson was inducted into the Internet Society’s (ISOC) Hall of Fame in 2012.
He died on Saturday, March 5.