FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Over the weekend, 65-year-old Gordon Matthews died of complications from a stroke. You may never have heard of him by name, but you hear his work nearly every time you pick up the phone. CNN's Bruce Morton reflects on Matthew's legacy.</s>BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gordon Matthews. He invented voice mail and changed America.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for calling Amtrak. To hear schedule and fare information...</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to the Internal Revenue Service. Touch-tone callers press one now.</s>MORTON: No more telephone operators, no more switchboards, no more coming back to a desk of message slips that your secretary left for you. What's a secretary?</s>JOEL ACHENBACK, "WASHINGTON POST": I don't think secretaries exist anymore. I don't even think we can use the word secretary anymore. I think it's understood now that technology runs our lives.</s>MORTON: That's the trouble. This man is calling the passport information office.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All agents are currently assisting other customers. Please hold and the next available agent will assist you.</s>MORTON: Yeah, right.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are sorry for the delay. All agents are still busy.</s>ACHENBACK: You find yourself screaming into the phone, saying, "no, I don't want any of those six options. I want the option 7 that you're not giving to me."</s>MORTON: And the recording always thanks us for our patience. (on camera): I don't have a lot of patience, and when I hear that, I'm always tempted to give the phone a good whack. You can say that's silly, or telephone abuse or whatever. And if you want to argue about it, call me. I'm right here, (202) 898-7547. But don't expect to get a real person. I have voice mail just like everybody else. Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.
Inventor of Voice Mail Dies