‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams Dies of Prostate Cancer at 68

Scott Adams, the cartoonist and author best known for “Dilbert,” the satirical comic strip that chronicled the absurdities of corporate office life for over three decades, has died following a battle with prostate cancer. He was 68.His death was announced Tuesday by his first ex-wife and caregiver, Shelly Miles, on the “Real Coffee With Scott Adams” podcast. Adams had previously discussed his health publicly, revealing in May that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. “Unfortunately, this isn’t good news,” Ms. Miles said during the announcement. “Of course, he waited till just before the show started, but he’s not with us anymore.”Adams had prepared a final message for his audience, which began: “If you’re reading this, things did not go well for me. I have a few things to say before I go. My body fell before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this January 1, 2026.”The cartoonist went on to say, “I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and look forward to spending an eternity with Him.”Adams launched Dilbert in 1989 while working as an applications engineer at Pacific Bell in San Ramon, California. Drawing from his own monotonous experiences in cubicles, Adams created a world centered on a mild-mannered engineer lacking social skills and his colleagues.The strip struck a chord with white-collar workers. At its peak, Dilbert was syndicated in more than 2,000 newspapers across 65 countries, translated into 25 languages, and reached an estimated daily readership of more than 150 million.“That’s the amazing thing I found when I went online a couple of years ago,” Adams told The New York Times in a 1995 interview regarding the strip’s success. “I heard from all these people who thought that they were the only ones, that they were in this unique, absurd situation. That they couldn’t talk about their situation because no one would believe it.”“Basically, there are 25 million people out there, living in cardboard boxes indoors, and there was no voice for them,” he said. “So there was this pent-up demand.”The franchise expanded well beyond the funny pages. Adams published numerous books, beginning with “Always Postpone Meetings With Time-Wasting Morons” in 1992, followed by bestsellers like “The Dilbert Principle.” A Dilbert animated series aired on UPN for two seasons starting in 1999, featuring voice talents such as Daniel Stern and Jason Alexander.Born in Windham, New York, in 1957, Adams cited “Peanuts,” drawn by Charles M. Schulz, as an early inspiration and began drawing comics at age six. He graduated with a BA in economics from Hartwick College in 1979 before moving to California.Adams spent years in the corporate machinery he would later lampoon. From 1979 to 1986, he held various roles at Crocker National Bank, including teller and computer programmer, before earning an MBA from UC Berkeley. It was during his subsequent tenure at Pacific Bell that he began sketching ideas on legal pads during endless meetings.In his later years, Adams became known as a political commentator. After the first Republican presidential primary debate in 2015, Adams predicted that Donald Trump, still low in the polls, would win the nomination and the presidency.Adams often said he was not a Republican: “I’m further left than Bernie Sanders,” he once told viewers. In 2016, despite his prediction, he endorsed Hillary Clinton, but he later used his podcast to explain Mr. Trump’s actions as president. Adams married Shelly Miles in 2006. He was stepfather to her two children, Savannah and Justin. Justin died of a fentanyl overdose in 2018. Although Adams and Miles divorced in 2014, they remained friends. Adams briefly married Kristina Basham in 2020; they divorced in 2022.

‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams Dies of Prostate Cancer at 68

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