Though not as noteworthy as Steve Jobs, Dennis Ritchie has passed away at age 70.

Most of you don’t know who Dennis Ritchie is, which isn’t surprising. Dennis wasn’t as glitzy or glamorous as Steve Jobs. He didn’t make pretty products. Instead, Dennis made the stuff that makes our stuff work. He was a nuts and bolts guy.

Specifically, Dennis was responsible for the C programming language. iOS apps are written in Objective-C, a descendant of the original C. Java, which Android apps are written in, is closely related to C as well.

Dennis is also credited as the co-inventor of the Unix operating system. FreeBSD Unix is used as foundation upon which Mac OS is based. Linux, which is used in Android-powered devices, is derived from Unix.

So, although you may never have heard of the man, Dennis Ritchie played a major role establishing the foundations upon which our modern technologies are based. Our thanks go out to this innovator, and our thoughts and prayers to his family and loved ones.