Charles M. "Chuck" Geschke (b. 1939) is best known as the co-founder with John Warnock of Adobe Systems Inc., the graphics and publishing software company, in 1982.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 11, 1939, Geschke attended Saint Ignatius High School and went on to earn an AB in classics and an MS in mathematics from Xavier University, as well as a PhD in computer science from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Prior to co-founding Adobe, Geschke and Warnock worked at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Geschke had started there in the early 1970s. Geschke formed and headed PARC's Imaging Sciences Laboratory in 1978 or 1980. Unable to convince Xerox management of the commercial value of Warnock's Interpress graphics language for controlling printing, the two left Xerox to start Adobe. At their new company, they developed an equivalent technology, PostScript, from scratch, and brought it to market.

In 1992, Geschke was kidnapped from the Adobe parking lot, and held for ransom for three days before escaping.

Geschke retired as president of Adobe in 2000, shortly before his partner Warnock left as CEO.

External links

• Biography at Computer History Museum
• Biography on Adobe Web site