Gamasutra has learned that game industry veteran Alan 'Al' Stone passed away on Friday due to cancer.

Stone was a game industry veteran, best known as one of the cofounders of Nintendo of America in 1981. He was an integral part of Nintendo's early efforts to distribute its coin-op games in America, among them Radar Scope and Donkey Kong.

By 1994 Stone had left Nintendo and joined Sega, where he served as president and CEO of Sega Enterprises (now Sega Entertainment, the company's arcade division) for a decade. After leaving Sega he continued to serve in executive positions at game- and tech-focused companies around the California Bay Area, most recently as a board member and chief operating officer of Nanotech Media.

In 2013 he was the subject of a brief video interview that highlighted his role at Nanotech, and it's worth watching if you'd like to hear him discuss his career highlights in the game industry. Arcade industry publication Intergame also has a tribute to Stone on its website.