Bill Atkinson — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Received the EFF Pioneer Award in 1994 for his contributions to computing.
Principal designer and developer of the graphical user interface (GUI) for the Apple Lisa and Macintosh.
Creator of the MacPaint application and HyperCard, an early hypermedia system.
Designed and implemented QuickDraw, the fundamental graphics toolbox for the Lisa and Macintosh.
Co-founded Apple spin-off General Magic in 1990.
Worked with Numenta, a startup focused on computer intelligence, starting in 2007.
Received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego.

Biography

William Dana Atkinson (March 17, 1951 – June 5, 2025) was an American computer engineer, programmer, and photographer. He joined Apple Computer in 1978 as employee No. 51, after studying at the University of California, San Diego, and pursuing graduate studies in neurochemistry at the University of Washington.

At Apple, Atkinson was a principal designer and developer of the graphical user interface (GUI) for the Apple Lisa and later a key member of the original Apple Macintosh development team.