Lloyd Morrisett, co-founder of Sesame Workshop and who famously founded the idea of “Sesame Street” has passed away at age 93. The Sesame Workshop Instagram account shared the news by saying in a statement, “Sesame Workshop mourns the passing of our esteemed and beloved co-founder Lloyd N. Morrisett, PhD, who died at the age of 93. A Lifetime Honorary Trustee, Lloyd leaves an outsized and indelible legacy among generations of children the world over, with Sesame Street only the most visible tribute to a lifetime of good work and lasting impact.” The statement continued by saying, “A wise, thoughtful, and above all kind leader of the Workshop for decades, Lloyd was fascinated by the power of technology and constantly thinking about new ways it could be used to educate.”

In 1965, Morrisett had the idea of the hit children’s show “Sesame Street” after noticing how engaged his three-year-old daughter, Sarah, was with the family TV set. This caused Morrisett to wonder if there was a way to educate children through television shows. He pitched the idea to close friend Joan Ganz Cooney at a dinner party months later. In 1968, Morrisett and Cooney created Children’s Television Workshop, which has been rebranded to Children’s Workshop, which is the non-profit organization that would air the revolutionary TV show. Just one year later in 1969, the legendary “Sesame Street” began airing. According to Cooney, there would be no “Sesame Street” without Morrisett. “It was he who first came up with the notion of using television to teach preschoolers basic skills, such as letters and numbers,” said Cooney in the Sesame Workshop statement.