Bill Kovacs, co-founder of Wavefront, dies at age 65
Bill Kovacs, a computer animation pioneer and Academy Award winner, has died. He was 56.
Kovacs died Tuesday at his Camarillo home from complications of a stroke brought on by a cerebral hemorrhage, said his longtime domestic partner, Kathy Salyer.
“He was a brilliant man, I mean totally creative, the absent-minded professor type, a lot of brain power,” she said. “His love of learning and exploration was contagious.”
Kovacs co-founded Wavefront Technologies in the early 1980s, which produced a groundbreaking, off-the-shelf software product that allowed all kinds of firms to create animation.
In 1997, he shared the Scientific and Engineering Academy Award with Roy Hall. They were recognized for their roles in developing Wavefront’s Advanced Visualizer computer graphics system.
In addition to Salyer, Kovacs is survived by their daughter, Savanna Salyer-Kovacs; a daughter from a previous marriage, Christine Kovacs; a son, Paul Kovacs; a sister, Nancy Kovacs; and his stepmother, Helen Benedict.
Original article in the Mercury News.