Anthony Douglas Krueger

It is with great regret and sorrow that we announce the passing of a gentle light from this world. Anthony Douglas Krueger, beloved husband, father, son, and friend, died on April 14th, 2026. In his life, Tony Krueger exemplified an unending love and generosity. Always kind, patient, supportive and hilarious, Tony is remembered by his wife and two sons as an incredible husband and “the best Dad ever.”

Tony, to us, Dad, always went the extra mile to help and was always there when people needed him. He is well known for flying all the way to France, Texas, and Wisconsin just to help his sons move. People are still finding tools he left in the back of their cars to help fix various problems. Tony embodied the spirit of the wise owl and the curious bear. He was a kaleidoscope of knowledge and experience, who illuminated the lives of those around him with his brilliant storytelling, problem solving, and love for learning, adventure, and the world at large. Tony adored travelling, reading, good company, and helping others. He enjoyed complex mechanisms, fireworks, exotic fruits, strange animals, and books about monks in desolate locations, as well as those about doomed explorers. Born in Seattle on June 17th, 1967, Tony went to Woodinville High School and was in the school’s first graduating class. After graduating, he went on to Stanford University where he majored in his lifelong passion, Computer Science.

In addition to his academic success, he was an excellent trumpet player in the Stanford band. He knew he was going to love it when, upon first joining, he stood in the doorway of the infamous “Band Shack”, watching a panicked musician, broom in hand, in hot pursuit of a frenzied rat. He found community and joy in the band, performing in such faraway places as Japan, and having many adventures with his friends.

After college, he led a distinguished career at Microsoft as a software engineer. He worked with many interesting people and did many interesting things. In the early days of his career, he ported the 1989 video game Chip's Challenge to Windows. The port was included in multiple Windows Entertainment Packs and quickly became one of the most popular games in the set. To his delight, it received frequent fan mail. He developed multiple patented inventions and implemented the code for Microsoft Word that causes red squiggles to appear when a word is misspelled, and green squiggles when there is a grammatical error. He is also known for Click-to-Run, a mechanism that speeds up installation times for Windows programs. Tony’s focus as a programmer was to make a program better for the people using it. This included his family, as he applied his programming talents making games for his sons. One of these was the beloved “frog game” which taught them math, despite their best efforts.

Tony was a gentle, kind, and modest human. In the spirit of Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal: GNU Dad, Tone, Tony Krueger, we love you, and we miss you very much.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, please go out and have an adventure inspired by Tony. Eat somewhere new, read a book (preferably about the aforementioned subjects), pay deep attention to a mathematical problem, find a novel beast, buy a strange fruit, indulge in family fun, or make an educational game about frogs. Anthony Douglas Krueger has embarked on his next great adventure.