Joseph F. Ossanna (
December 10,
1928 -
November 28,
1977),
received his
BSEE[?] from
Wayne State University[?],
Detroit,
Michigan, in
1952. Ha was since a member of the Technical Staff of the
Bell Telephone Laboratories,
Murray Hill,
New Jersey. He was actively engaged in the software design of
Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service), a general purpose programming system used at the
Bell Telephone Laboratories. He also authored the first version of
troff for
Unix. He died in an accident, being run over by a car.