Man who invented ‘cut, copy and paste’ dies at 74

Larry Tesler, an icon of early computing, has died at the age of 74.

Mr 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.

Xerox, where Mr Tesler spent part of his career, paid tribute to him.

“The inventor of cut/copy & paste, find & replace, and more, was former Xerox researcher Larry Tesler,” the company tweeted. “Your workday is easier thanks to his revolutionary ideas.”

Mr Tesler was born in the 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 (Parc), 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.

In 2012, he told the BBC of Silicon Valley: “There’s almost a rite of passage – after you’ve made some money, you don’t just retire, you spend your time funding other companies.

“There’s a very strong element of excitement, of being able to share what you’ve learned with the next generation.