The New York Times is reporting Autodesk founder John Walker to have died on February 2nd at the age of 74. 

The technologist and Case Western Reserve University alumnus is credited with the development of AutoCAD, a software tool which revolutionized architectural design and paved the way for the industry to expand considerably in regards to output beginning in the 1990s.

Walker, along with 12 programmers, formed the company with $59,000 in 1982 and served on its board as chairman and president until he stepped away from leadership roles in 1986, penning a memoir of his experiences titled The Autodesk File three years later. 

Since then, he lived mostly in Switzerland, working on programming for the company until 1994. Autodesk grew during those years to become one of the world's ten largest software companies. Autodesk, which had to shutter its San Rafael, California, location amidst the recent recession in the tech industry, now has more than twenty offices and reported a total of $1.47 billion in revenues for the past fiscal year. 

The Autodesk Foundation was established by the company in 2014 before a 2021 graphic identity refresh. A new Autodesk Technology Engagement Center at California State University, Northridge, is expected to open later this year, allowing the company to utilize the AI technologies it has invested in beginning with two separate acquisitions that were made in 2020.