Scott Adams, the cartoonist whose "Dilbert" comic strip satirizing white-collar office life appeared in newspapers around the world at its peak, has died at age 68.
Adams' first ex-wife, Shelly Miles, announced his death on X and on Adams' "Coffee with Scott Adams" YouTube channel.
Adams revealed in May 2025 that he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"He's not with us anymore," Miles said before reading a final message from Adams on the channel.
"If you are reading this, things did not go well for me," began the message from Adams that Miles read.
After discussing some of his important life events, Adams wrote, "I had an amazing life."
He finished, "Be useful, and please know I loved you all to the very end."
Adams kept his followers and fans up to date about his illness via social media accounts, including his "Coffee with Scott Adams" video podcast.
Adams was born in Windham, New York on June 8, 1957.
After a stint working for the Pacific Bell telephone company, Adams pivoted his career to a full-time cartoonist.
"I said to myself, 'I think I'm going to look around, see if there is something else I can do that doesn't require having a boss.' And I thought cartooning might be a good way to at least make some money on the side if I could figure out how to do it. So I set about the task of figuring out how a person becomes a cartoonist," said Adams in an interview with Vlad TV.
"Dilbert," featuring the strip's titular office drone, first appeared in newspapers in 1989 and soon became massively successful, finding its way into thousands of publications around the world and earning Adams the 1997 Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in recognition of his work.
"Dilbert" ultimately launched a merchandising and media franchise, including an animated television series that Adams developed, which aired for two seasons beginning in 1999.
