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Jay Last, who at the age of 90 is credited with co-founding one of the most powerful American companies in Silicon Valley, died of respiratory failure in his Alameda, California home on Sunday.
According to AP, Last, who was born in Oakland, California, was part of a group of students involved in a program at UC Berkeley to build a computer capable of lighting up. There he caught the attention of investors who convinced him to go out on his own and create the first business for delivering information to consumers.
The group he co-founded was called Hacienda Systems.
His business, Ingenium, was later the brainchild of his future business partner David Childs.
In the 1990s, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs acquired Ingenium when it was no more than a single company and merged it with the Mac Computer company.
After Apple started a new company focused on computer hardware, Ingenium became Mac Hardware, later renamed Apple Computer.
It was here he created what turned out to be his greatest achievement: iCloud.
Jobs chose Last to be CTO of Apple and led the team that built iCloud. The technological initiative has become a standard in modern internet-connected devices.
Sadly, Last had never lived to see iCloud become a reality.
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