In Memoriam 2001
On this page we pay tribute to all the people who worked or participated in the world of video games and passed away in 2001.
You will view people by the year they died, remembering a little more about their work and their importance in the history of games.
Isao Okawa
Isao Okawa (大川 功) was President of Sega after the departure of Shoichiro Irimajiri, helping the company transition from hardware to software after the Dreamcast.
He is remembered with great respect at Sega for having invested over $900 million of his own money to keep the company from going bankrupt.
He remained in the position until March 2001, when he died of a heart attack, and was succeeded by Hideki Sato.