Garry Betty, the president and chief executive of EarthLink Inc., has died from complications of cancer, the Internet service provider said Wednesday. He was 49.

Betty joined EarthLink in 1996 and oversaw the company's growth from a regional service provider with 500,000 subscribers to a national one with more than 5 million.

He took a medical leave of absence in November. He was diagnosed with adrenocortical cancer, a tumor that occurs in the adrenal glands above the kidneys. He died Tuesday at his Atlanta home.

Colleagues described Betty as an energetic man who often greeted people with the phrase "How we doin'?" He was a computer industry leader with Southern charm, credited with helping to develop personal computers and the Internet communications that connected them.

"Garry was instrumental in building EarthLink into the company it is today," Earthlink Chairman Robert M. Kavner said in a statement.

Mike Lunsford will remain as interim CEO, company officials said.

Before joining EarthLink, Betty served as CEO of Digital Communications Associates Inc. At the time, he was the youngest CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a statement from Earthlink.

He began his career at IBM Corp., and won the IBM President's Excellence Award in 1982 for his work on the company's personal computer.

Betty graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. He stayed involved with the school, and last year chaired the Georgia Tech Advisory Board, an influential panel that provides counsel to the university's president.

He also donated money to the university and has been active in helping Georgia Tech develop academic and research programs.

"It's unusual that a sitting CEO would devote as much time as Garry did" to the university, said Rich DeMillo, dean of Georgia Tech's College of Computing.

Friends said he was a fan of crossword puzzles, and frequently attended Georgia Tech sporting events.

He also was earnest about customer satisfaction. DeMillo recalled having a cup of coffee with Betty in 2004 when an EarthLink customer walked up to complain about the company's service. Betty broke off the coffee to listen to the customer, take notes, and call the company to address the concerns.

Atlanta-based EarthLink has about 2,200 employees.

Like other ISPs that started as telephone dial-up services, EarthLink has been trying to adapt as U.S. households increasingly choose high-speed broadband access. Recently, the company had struggled with a decline in subscribers and losses from Helio, a wireless joint venture with South Korea's SK Telecom.

The company posted a $3.2 million loss for its third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of $36.4 million, during the same period in 2005.

Less than three weeks after being diagnosed with cancer, Betty attended EarthLink's 2006 Christmas party, wrote Lunsford, the interim CEO, on a Garry Betty tribute page on EarthLink's Web site.

"He put on a tux and came out for a night to make all of us feel better. And he succeeded," Lunsford wrote in his posting.

Betty is survived by his wife, Kathy.