"It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing", Dennis Troper, Wojcicki's husband said in a Facebook post.
"My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non-small cell lung cancer," he added.
One of the most prominent women in tech, Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 to become one of the first few employees of the web search leader, years before it acquired YouTube.
Technological giant Google grew to its glory from humble beginnings in Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park, California, where in 1998, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented the space to develop their search engine.
Before becoming CEO of YouTube in 2014, Wojcicki was senior vice president for ad products at Google.
Born in California to a Polish father, Stanley Wójcicki, her Polish heritage played an important role in her career.
She held Polish citizenship and was recognized as an "Ambassador of Polishness" by President Andrzej Duda.
She would occasionally visit Poland and attend events dedicated to technology and innovation.
Susan's grandfather, Franciszek Wójcicki, was a lawyer and a Polish MP before WWII.
Susan’s grandmother, Janina Wójcicka, was a researcher at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
In 1949, she emigrated to Sweden with her son, Susan's father, and then moved to the United States. Susan's grandfather never managed to leave the communist-ruled Poland.
(mo)
Source: PAP, Reuters
