As heavy users of the C language and Unix operating environments, we`ll simply note our gratitude for Ritchie`s 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