Dennis Ritchie was born in Bronxville, New York on September 9, 1941. He followed in the foosteps of his father, a renouned scientists(about.com). He had not started his career working with computers, but his interest in computer programming grew while he attended harvard university. He worked for MIT at the same time, advancing computors out of a strong curiosity, and interest in the potential of computers. He had origionally studied physics, but after great success on a project to make operating systems for smaller, faster computers, Ritchie decided to focus his career on Computer Programming. To broaden his overall knowledge of technology, he got a job at Bell Labs, the leading phone and other communications company of the times. In order to advance the interaction between mini-computers, he set about working with Kenneth Thompson. Together they came up with Unix operating system, which worked well with many different types of computing machines and was compatible with any software. IBM adopted Unix operating system, and eventually, Ritchie improved it further, creating "C" computer programming language. This was the simplest programming language yet, and was used by many computer companies to create their own software by the 80's. Thompson and Ritchie continued to work together, both bringing their genius to the field (noteablebiographies.com). They set the stage for other brilliant minds such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg , who all contributed to taking programming to a whole new level.
Dennis Ritchie supposedly had a great sense of humor, and fulfilled the tipical nerd stereotype. An article in the Wall Street Journal pays him tribute and tells his story as he passed away at the age of 70 in 2011 Wall street journal- Dennis ritchie.
For a deeper picture of his charming personality, check out the little note that his family wrote to Bell labs in response to the good wished from his fans: Appreciation