The Man Who Invented ‘Copy And Paste’ In Computer, Larry Tesler, Dies At 74

The man who invented the ‘copy and paste’ function in computing, Larry Tesler has sadly passed away at 74.

Larry Tesler, the man who invented “cut”, “copy” and “paste” to early computing, has died at the age of 74.

According to a BBC report, Tesler started working in Silicon Valley in the early 1960s, at a time when computers were inaccessible to the vast majority of people.

It was thanks to his innovations – which included the “cut”, “copy” and “paste” commands – that the personal computer became simple to learn and use.

Tesler was born in Bronx, New York, in 1945, and studied at Stanford University in California.

After graduating, he specialised in user interface design – that is, making computer systems more user-friendly.

He worked for a number of major tech firms during his long career.

He started at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center before Steve Jobs poached him for Apple where he spent 17 years and rose to chief scientist.

After leaving Apple, he set up an education start-up and worked for brief periods at Amazon and Yahoo.