As heavy users of the C language and Unix operating environments, well simply note our gratitude for Ritchies work.  There`s any number of articles on the topic of his passing.  One of the best ones is here:  http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/dennis-ritchie/Wikipedia (Dennis Ritchie): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie