considered to be a genius. He was also paranoid, very hard to get along with and drank incessantly". Death On February 27, 1991, Widlar died of a heart attack at the age of 53, in Puerto Vallarta. David Liddle said in 2009 that "the untimely early death of ... Robert Widlar is a whole story in itself". Early reports incorrectly said that Widlar died while jogging on a beach. Later sources corrected the mistake: he was running up a hill. Bob Pease wrote more precisely: "Apparently he had been jogging on a sidewalk, in a steep hilly section of Puerta Vallarta. Bob was, in recent years, pretty much into fitness, and he worked hard at his running ... I'm no doctor. But he did not die drunk, which may have amazed a number of his colleagues". Jack Gifford concurred: "He didn't die as a derelict. He wasn't, I mean he was fine. He was coherent. Probably leading the most, he was down in Mexico, living in Mexico, but he was sober and leading a reasonable life for him at that point when he died". Personality Widlar lived the life of an alcoholic genius, who went on all-night-long bar binges. According to Jack Gifford, Widlar liked to harass and fight others when drunk, but regularly overestimated his own abilities in such confrontations. On one occasion he was "absolutely clocked" by the offended Mike Scott, a future CEO of Apple Inc. Charles Sporck retold another incident: during a European roadshow Widlar got drunk and publicly refused to speak to the audience unless he got more gin. Sporck said that "We had no choice. We had to get his glass filled up. And then he went on with the lecture. And he, you know, he got plastered, but the interesting part of it is he was just so damn smart, you know. Even drunk he could just wow these people." According to fellow analog circuit designer Bob Pease, Widlar cut down on his drinking shortly before death. Gifford said in 2002: "He stopped drinking but I think the damage was probably done, you know, in the first twenty years." According to Bo Lojek, "as he was older he was for the first time able to keep relationship with one woman." Widlar's eccentric behavior is remembered in legends and anecdotes which, according to Bob Pease, are largely true. He did practice widlarizing – methodically