Apple’s co-founder dies of a long battle with cancer Oct. 5 at the age of 56.
Steve Jobs was born Feb. 24, 1955 and was given up for adoption by mom, speech professor Joanne Simpson and Syrian political science professor Abdulfattah Jandali. Shortly after Job’s adoption, both parents had a child named Mona Simpson, and it wasn’t until age 27 that Job’s uncovered information about his biological family. Jobs lived with his adoptive parents, accountant Clara Jobs and Coast Guard veteran Paul Jobs in Mountain View in California’s Silicone Valley. Paul instilled mechanical intelligence in Steve as he taught him how to dismantle and assemble electronics when he was young. Even in his early grade levels, Job’s teachers described him as an intelligent and inventive thinker, so much so that his teachers wanted to skip him ahead to high school, but his parents declined.
After high school, Jobs attended Reed College but dropped out after six months. Attending more creative classes, he found his passion for typography through his attendance to a calligraphy class. Job’s began his entrepreneurship with Apple in his garage, partnering with Steve Wozniak, a computer expert Job’s met while in high school. The first Apple computer the duo developed earned them $774, 000 and the second model, Apple II made them $139 million. Job’s saw John Scully, Pepsi-Cola marketing expert to become Apple President. Jobs resigned from CEO of the company in 1985 and from there he purchased George Lucas’s animation company, NeXt, Inc., which is what we now know as Pixar Animation Studios. In 1997, Apple bought the company and brought back Jobs as its CEO. When he did, Apple was noticed once again.
In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was in the form of a tumor, but Jobs chose to put off the surgery and alter his diet instead but later in 2004, Jobs finally had the tumor successfully removed. In Job’s years with Apple, he has revolutionized the world of technology with innovative products such as the iPod, the iPhone and more recently the iPad. Not only that, but iTunes has become the second biggest music retailer and is the source, paired with iPods, of half of Apple’s total revenue. Apple has been rated No. 1 in America’s Most Admired Companies since 2008.
In early 2009, rumors began to circulate about Job’s declining health and weight loss. Steve Jobs was married to Laurene Powell on March 18, 1991 where they lived together in Palo Alta, California. They have three children together. Jobs is also known to have another child out of wedlock when he was 23. He had nothing to do with his daughter until the age of 7 and she came to live with him when she became a teenager.
Many people around the world saw Jobs as a revolutionary individual with a revolutionary life. The globe is mourning his death and he will be dearly missed by his family and the countless Apple technology admirers everywhere.
