Cort Stinnett passed away suddenly at home on Saturday 12^th March 2022, at the age of 61. He will be missed by all his friends and colleagues in the Optics Community.

Cort joined Zemax in 2011 as the first ever Product Manager for what was then known as ‘the Zemax program’. He joined us from Microsoft, where he was part of the Product Management team for Vista.

Cort quickly made an impact and added commercial flair and execution to the product’s development. Along with Sanjay Gangadhara, Akash Arora and others, Cort helped extend Zemax into the CAD world, first with integrations to SolidWorks, and then with Inventor and Creo. He helped lay the groundwork for what would become OpticStudio, a reimagined version of the Zemax product based on 21^st Century coding platforms and UI standards.

From 2014 onwards Cort was General Manager of the LensMechanix business area and was responsible for the development of this product from concept to launch. This is now called OpticsBuilder and has proven indispensable in advanced optical product development. Cort was also Director of Product Development, with the Product Managers of OpticStudio and LensMechanix reporting to him.

But beyond his business contributions, Cort was a well-liked and amiable colleague. He loved the outdoors, bike commuted to the office every day, and was a very keen mountain biker. His life revolved around his family, of which he was very proud. Those of us who knew him at Zemax will miss him greatly, and send his family our heartfelt condolences.