Larry Tesler, Inventor of Cut, Copy and Paste Passes Away at 74

The Silicon Valley pioneer, Larry Tesler, the creator of the computer concepts "cut," "copy" and "paste," dies at age 74.

He made the usage of the computer easy for generations as a pioneer of "modeless editing" what he called. So a user need not use a keyboard to switch between modes to write and edit.

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

Larry Tesler was born in New York, and he received a degree in mathematics in 1965 from Stanford University.

He joined Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1973, a division of the copier company that worked on making computer products. There, he founded concepts to make computers more user-friendly. That included moving text through cut and paste and inserting text by clicking on a section and just typing.

In 1980 he joined Apple and continued that work. At Apple, he worked on a range of products including the Lisa computer, the Newton personal digital assistant and the Macintosh.

In 1997 he co-founded an education software company after leaving Apple and held executive positions at Amazon, Yahoo and the genetics-testing service 23andMe before becoming an independent consulting.

Tesler told the BBC in 2012 that he enjoyed working with younger people.

"There's a very strong element of excitement, of being able to share what you've learned with the next generation," he said.