Jon Postel managed IANA for many years and edited numerous early RFCs.
Postel joined UCLA’s ARPANET work in late 1969 and became deeply involved in developing and documenting the protocols that connected early networked computers. He later served at USC’s Information Sciences Institute, where his responsibilities included important Internet coordination roles.
He was the RFC Editor from 1969 until his death in 1998. RFCs, or Requests for Comments, became the Internet engineering community’s durable method for proposing, recording, and standardizing protocols. Postel wrote or co-authored influential documents including RFC 791, which specifies Internet Protocol, RFC 792 on Internet Control Message Protocol, and RFC 793 on Transmission Control Protocol.
Postel also directed the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, or IANA, from its inception. IANA coordinated globally significant registries such as protocol numbers, parameter assignments, and domain-name information. A common mix-up is crediting Postel as the sole inventor of the Internet; his importance was instead in protocol stewardship, technical editing, and the practical coordination that helped the growing network remain interoperable.