Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor. He was an early leader in the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Jobs co-founded Apple Inc. with his business partner Steve Wozniak as Apple Computer Company in 1976. In 1985, Apple’s board of directors removed him from his position. That same year, he started a new company called NeXT and bought Pixar in 1986, becoming its chairman and majority owner until 2007. Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 as CEO, where he played a major role in creating and promoting many of the company’s most important products until he left in 2011.

Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and was adopted soon after. He attended Reed College in 1972 but left the same year. In 1974, he traveled to India to learn about different ideas and later studied Zen Buddhism. He and Wozniak started Apple in 1976 to develop and sell Wozniak’s Apple I personal computer. The following year, they produced and sold the Apple II, one of the first widely successful computers made in large quantities.

In 1979, Jobs saw the Xerox Alto, a computer that used a mouse and had a graphical user interface (GUI). This inspired the creation of the Apple Lisa in 1983, which was not very successful, and the Macintosh 128K in 1984, the first widely sold computer with a GUI. The Macintosh helped start the desktop publishing industry in 1985, for example, with the Aldus PageMaker software and the Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer that could display vector graphics and PostScript.

In 1985, Jobs left Apple after a disagreement with the company’s board and its CEO, John Sculley. That same year, he started NeXT, a company that made computers for schools and businesses, and served as its CEO. In 1986, he purchased the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, which became Pixar. Pixar created the first computer-animated movie, Toy Story (1995), and later became a top animation studio, making many popular and well-received films.

In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple as CEO after the company bought NeXT. He helped save Apple, which was nearly out of money. He worked with British designer Jony Ive to create products and services that had a big impact on culture, including the "Think different" advertising campaign, the iMac, iTunes, Mac OS X, Apple Store, iPod, iTunes Store, iPhone, App Store, and iPad. Jobs was also on the board of directors at Gap Inc. from 1999 to 2002. In 2003, he was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. He died in 2011 due to complications from the tumor. In 2022, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. After his death, he received 141 patents, and he holds over 450 patents in total.

Early life

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali. Abdulfattah Jandali was born into a Muslim family in Syria to wealthy parents and was the youngest of nine children. He earned a college degree at the American University of Beirut and later studied for a doctorate in political science at the University of Wisconsin. There, he met Joanne Schieble, an American Catholic with Swiss-German ancestry. Joanne’s parents owned a mink farm and real estate in Green Bay. Joanne and Jandali fell in love but faced opposition from Joanne’s father because of Jandali’s Muslim faith. When Joanne became pregnant, she arranged for a closed adoption and traveled to San Francisco to give birth. Jobs’ cousin, Bassma Al Jandaly, stated that his birth name before adoption was Abdul Lateef Jandali.

Joanne wanted her son to be adopted by college graduates. A lawyer and his wife were initially chosen, but they withdrew after learning the baby was a boy. Jobs was then adopted by Paul Reinhold Jobs and his wife, Clara. Paul Jobs was an American of German descent and the son of a dairy farmer from Wisconsin. He left high school early and worked as a mechanic before joining the U.S. Coast Guard. After being discharged in San Francisco, he married Clara Hagopian, who was of Armenian descent, in 1946. The couple moved to Wisconsin and then Indiana, where Paul worked as a machinist and later as a car salesman. Clara missed San Francisco and convinced Paul to move back. There, Paul worked as a repossession agent, and Clara became a bookkeeper. In 1955, after an ectopic pregnancy, the couple decided to adopt a child. Because Paul and Clara did not have college degrees, Joanne initially refused to sign the adoption papers and asked a court to remove the child from their care. However, she changed her mind after Paul and Clara promised to pay for their son’s college education.

In his youth, Jobs was taken to a Lutheran church by his adoptive parents. When Steve was in high school, Clara told his girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan, that she had been afraid to love him for the first six months of his life, fearing he might be taken away. She also said she felt they had made a mistake after Steve became difficult to care for. When Chrisann shared this with Steve, he said he already knew and later claimed he had been deeply loved by Paul and Clara. Jobs often refused to be called "adoptive parents" and instead referred to them as his parents "1,000%." He called his biological parents "my sperm and egg bank," explaining it was a simple way to describe their role.

As a child, Jobs thought of himself as someone interested in the humanities but also liked electronics. He later read a quote from Edwin Land of Polaroid, who emphasized the importance of people who could connect the humanities and sciences. This inspired Jobs to pursue a path that combined both areas.

Paul Jobs worked in various jobs, including as a machinist. He and Clara adopted Jobs’s sister, Patricia, in 1957. By 1959, the family moved to the Monta Loma neighborhood in Mountain View, California. Paul built a workbench in his garage for his son to "pass along his love of mechanics." Jobs admired his father’s craftsmanship because he could build anything, such as cabinets or fences. Jobs would help his father by using a hammer, even though he was not particularly interested in fixing cars.

Jobs struggled in traditional classrooms, resisted authority, and was often misbehaved. He played pranks on others at Monta Loma Elementary School. His father, Paul, who had been abused as a child, never punished him and blamed the school for not challenging his son. Jobs skipped the 5th grade and moved to the 6th grade at Crittenden Middle School, where he became a "socially awkward loner." He was frequently bullied and, by 7th grade, told his parents he would drop out of school unless they removed him from Crittenden.

The Jobs family was not wealthy, and they used all their savings to buy a new home in 1967. This allowed Steve to attend school in the better Cupertino School District. The house, located on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, was declared a historic site in 2013 as the first location of Apple Computer. As of 2013, it was owned by Jobs’s sister, Patty, and occupied by his stepmother, Marilyn. In 1968, when Jobs was 13, he got a summer job with Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard after calling him to request parts for an electronics project.

The location of the Los Altos home allowed Jobs to attend Homestead High School, which had strong ties to Silicon Valley. He began his first year there in late 1968 with Bill Fernandez, who later introduced him to Steve Wozniak, who would become Apple’s first employee. Neither Jobs nor Fernandez had engineering backgrounds, so they enrolled in an electronics class taught by John McCollum. Jobs grew his hair long and became involved in the counterculture movement, which led to conflicts with McCollum and a loss of interest in the class.

Jobs’s interests changed in mid-1970. He later told his biographer that he started listening to more music and reading works like Shakespeare and Plato. He especially loved the play King Lear and had a memorable English class taught by a teacher who resembled Ernest Hemingway. During his senior year, his best friends were Wozniak and his first girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan.

In 1971, after Wozniak began attending the University of California, Berkeley, Jobs visited him there weekly. This experience led him to study in Stanford University’s student union. Instead of joining the electronics club, Jobs worked on light shows for Homestead’s avant-garde jazz program. A classmate described him as "kind of a brain and kind of a hippie" but noted he never fully fit into either group. He was smart enough to be a nerd but not overly nerdy, and too intellectual for the hippies, who focused on partying. By his senior year, he was taking a freshman English class at Stanford and working on a film project with Chrisann Brennan.

Around this time, Wozniak designed a low-cost digital "blue box" to manipulate telephone networks and make free long-distance calls. He was inspired by an article titled "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" from the October 1971 issue of Esquire. Jobs decided to sell the devices and split the profits with Wozniak.

1974–1985

In the early days of computers, the industry was young and full of dreams. Few schools taught computer science, so people who worked in computers came from many different fields, like math, physics, music, and biology. They were passionate about their work, and most were not interested in making money. Some people today start companies only to earn money, but the most successful companies were built on ideas and creativity, not just profit.

In February 1974, Jobs returned to his parents’ home in Los Altos, California, and began looking for work. He was soon hired by Atari, Inc., in Los Gatos, California, as a computer technician. In 1973, Steve Wozniak created his own version of the classic video game Pong and gave its electronics board to Jobs. Wozniak said Atari hired Jobs because he brought the board to the company, and they believed he had built it himself. Atari’s cofounder, Nolan Bushnell, described Jobs as “difficult but valuable,” noting that “he was often the smartest person in the room and would let others know it.”

In mid-1974, Jobs traveled to India with his friend Daniel Kottke from Reed College, who later became an Apple employee. They visited Neem Karoli Baba’s ashram in Kainchi, but it was nearly empty because the spiritual leader had died in 1973. Jobs and Kottke then traveled to another ashram in the area.

After seven months in India, Jobs returned to the United States before Kottke. He changed his appearance, shaving his head and wearing traditional Indian clothing. During this time, Jobs experimented with psychedelic drugs and later called his LSD experiences “some of the most important things I did in my life.” He also spent time at a commune in Oregon called All One Farm, owned by Robert Friedland.

During this period, Jobs and Brennan practiced Zen Buddhism under the guidance of Zen master Kōbun Chino Otogawa. Jobs participated in long meditation retreats at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the oldest Sōtō Zen monastery in the United States. He considered living as a monk in Japan and always appreciated Zen, Japanese food, and artists like Hasui Kawase.

Jobs returned to Atari in early 1975. That summer, Bushnell asked Jobs to design a circuit board for the arcade game Breakout using as few chips as possible, knowing Jobs would ask Wozniak for help. While working at HP, Wozniak sketched the circuit design. At night, he joined Jobs at Atari to refine the design, which Jobs built on a breadboard. Atari offered $100 (about $600 today) for each chip removed from the machine. Jobs made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly if Wozniak could reduce the number of chips. Wozniak reduced the chip count to 45, far below the usual 100. Atari later re-engineered the design for easier testing and added features. Wozniak later said Jobs told him they received $750 (instead of the actual $5,000), and he would have given Jobs his share if he had known.

In 1975, Jobs and Wozniak attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club, which helped lead to the creation of the first Apple computer. According to a document from the United States Department of Defense, Jobs claimed he was arrested in Eugene, Oregon, in 1975 after being questioned about having alcohol as a minor. Jobs said he did not have alcohol, but police found he had an unpaid speeding ticket. He paid a $50 fine, and the arrest reportedly happened “behind a store.”

Steve Wozniak and Jobs created Apple because they wanted a personal computer. They could not afford the computers available at the time, and those computers were not practical for their needs. They compared their goal to owning a Volkswagen. While a Volkswagen is not the fastest or most comfortable car, it gives drivers freedom to travel whenever and with whomever they choose.

By March 1976, Wozniak completed the basic design of the Apple I computer and showed it to Jobs, who suggested they sell it. Wozniak was at first unsure but later agreed. In April 1976, Jobs, Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) as a partnership in Jobs’s parents’ home on Crist Drive. The company started in Jobs’s bedroom and later moved to the garage. Wayne left shortly after, leaving Jobs and Wozniak as the main founders.

Jobs and Wozniak chose the name “Apple” after Jobs visited an apple orchard at the All One Farm commune in Oregon. Jobs originally planned to sell bare circuit boards of the Apple I to hobbyists for $50 each (about $280 today). To fund the first batch, Wozniak sold his HP calculator, and Jobs sold his Volkswagen van. Later that year, Paul Terrell bought 50 fully assembled Apple I units for $500 each. About 200 Apple I computers were made in total.

A neighbor on Crist Drive described Jobs as unusual, often greeting customers with his underwear hanging out, barefoot, and in a hippie-like style. Another neighbor, Larry Waterland, a chemical engineering PhD from Stanford, dismissed Jobs’s idea of building a computer, saying, “You’ve got to be joking.” Jobs’s friend Daniel Kottke, who later worked at Apple, said Jobs did not handle hands-on tasks, while Wozniak would visit weekly with his latest code. Kottke also said much of the early work happened in Jobs’s kitchen, where Jobs spent hours on the phone trying to find investors.

They received funding from Mike Markkula, a semi-retired engineer from Intel. Scott McNealy, a cofounder of Sun Microsystems, said Jobs broke a “glass age ceiling” in Silicon Valley by creating a successful company at a young age. Markkula introduced Apple to Arthur Rock, who invested $60,000 after seeing the Apple booth at the Homebrew Computer Show and joined Apple’s board. Jobs was unhappy when Markkula hired Mike Scott from National Semiconductor to be Apple’s first president and CEO in 1977.

What made Apple unique was that its engineers worked like artists. In a field filled with people who focused

1985–1997

After leaving Apple in 1985, Steve Jobs started a new company called NeXT Inc. with $7 million. A year later, he needed more money and asked for investments, even though he did not yet have a product. Eventually, he caught the attention of billionaire Ross Perot, who gave the company a large amount of money. The NeXT computer was introduced at a special event in San Francisco on October 12, 1988. This event, called a "multimedia extravaganza," was only open to invited guests and was considered a major moment in Jobs's career. Steve Wozniak, who worked with Jobs at Apple, said in a 2013 interview that Jobs was "really getting his head together" during his time at NeXT.

NeXT workstations were first sold in 1990 for $9,999, which would be about $25,000 in 2025. Like the Apple Lisa, the NeXT workstation was very advanced but was not widely used because of its high cost. It was known for its strong software system, especially one that used object-oriented programming. Jobs promoted NeXT products to schools, scientists, and businesses, highlighting technologies such as the Mach kernel, a special chip for processing signals, and a built-in internet connection. Using a NeXT computer, computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1990 at CERN in Switzerland.

In 1990, NeXT released an updated version of its computer called the NeXTcube. Jobs called it the first "interpersonal" computer, which he said would replace personal computers. The NeXTcube could send and receive voice, images, and videos through email for the first time. Jobs was very focused on making the computers look perfect, which led to the creation of a special magnesium case for the NeXTcube. This focus put pressure on the hardware team, and by 1993, NeXT shifted fully to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP/Intel. The company made its first profit of $1.03 million in 1994. In 1996, NeXT released WebObjects, a tool for building websites. In 1997, Apple bought NeXT, and WebObjects was later used to create the Apple Store, MobileMe, and the iTunes Store.

In 1986, Jobs helped start a new company called The Graphics Group, which later became Pixar, by investing $10 million. Half of this money was given to the company, and the other half was paid to Lucasfilm for technology rights. The first movie made by Pixar with Disney, Toy Story (1995), was a big success and received praise from critics. Over the years, Pixar made many popular films, including A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, and Cars 2. Brave (2012), the first Pixar film after Jobs's death, honored him with a tribute. Several of these films, including Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, and Brave, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, an award that began in 2001.

In 2003 and 2004, Jobs and Disney’s leader, Michael Eisner, tried but failed to agree on a new partnership. Jobs said he would no longer work with Disney. In 2005, Bob Iger became Disney’s leader and worked to improve relations with Jobs and Pixar. In 2006, Disney agreed to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock. After the deal, Jobs became Disney’s largest single shareholder, owning about 7% of the company’s stock. This was more than the shares owned by Eisner or Disney family members. After Jobs’s death, his shares were transferred to the Steven P. Jobs Trust, managed by his wife, Laurene Jobs.

In 2019, Bob Iger said that some people warned him Jobs might be difficult to work with, but he found Jobs to be helpful and rarely caused problems. Iger also said that if Jobs had lived, Disney and Apple might have merged. Edwin Catmull, a Pixar founder, said Jobs was a calm and mature person who respected the creative work of filmmakers. Catmull wrote a book called Creativity, Inc., where he shared stories about working with Jobs.

1997–2011

In 1996, Apple, the company Steve Jobs had helped start, was in trouble and needed to finish its next operating system to survive. After failing to buy Be Inc., Apple agreed to buy NeXT in December 1996 for $400 million. The deal was completed in February 1997, and Jobs returned to Apple. After the company's then-CEO, Gil Amelio, was removed from his position in July 1997, Jobs became the acting chief executive. He was officially named interim CEO on September 16, 1997. In March 1998, Jobs stopped several projects, including Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc, to focus on helping Apple become profitable again. Many employees were afraid of seeing Jobs in the elevator, worried they might lose their jobs. Although Jobs rarely fired people, the few who were let go caused fear throughout the company. Jobs also changed Apple's licensing program for Macintosh clones, making it too expensive for other companies to produce Mac-compatible computers.

The purchase of NeXT brought its technology into Apple products, especially NeXTSTEP, which later became Mac OS X. Under Jobs's leadership, Apple's sales grew after introducing the iMac and other new products. Apple became known for its attractive designs and strong brand image. At the 2000 Macworld Expo, Jobs officially became Apple's permanent CEO, joking that he would be called "iCEO."

Apple expanded into other digital products, such as the iPod, iTunes, and the iTunes Store, which helped the company enter consumer electronics and music distribution. On June 29, 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone, a smartphone with a touch screen, music player features, and a mobile browser that changed how people used phones. Jobs often reminded employees that "real artists ship," meaning successful projects must be completed and released.

Jobs had a public disagreement with Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computers, starting in 1987. In 1997, Dell said he would shut down Apple if he ran it. In 2006, Jobs sent an email to Apple employees when Apple's market value surpassed Dell's.

Jobs was known for his ability to persuade and sell, a skill called the "reality distortion field," which was especially clear during his speeches at events like Macworld and Apple developer conferences.

Jobs often wore a black long-sleeved turtleneck from Issey Miyake, blue Levi's jeans, and New Balance sneakers. He told his biographer that he liked having a uniform for convenience and to show his personal style.

In 2001, Jobs received stock options for 7.5 million Apple shares with an exercise price of $18.30. It was later claimed that these options were backdated, with the correct price being $21.10. This could have meant Jobs owed taxes on $20 million in income he did not report, and Apple may have overestimated its earnings. Investigations found Jobs was unaware of the issue, and the options were returned in 2003.

In 2005, Jobs criticized Apple's recycling programs for electronic waste. Later that year, Apple began offering free iPod recycling at its stores. A group called the Computer TakeBack Campaign criticized Apple by displaying a banner during Jobs's Stanford University speech.

In 2006, Apple expanded its recycling program to all U.S. customers who bought new Mac computers, including shipping and environmentally friendly disposal of old systems. Apple's success with products and services helped it become the world's most valuable public company in 2011.

Jobs was seen as a perfectionist who aimed to lead his companies and products to the forefront of technology by predicting and setting trends. At a 2007 Macworld speech, he quoted ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

In 2008, a $7 billion lawsuit was filed against Apple's board members for alleged securities fraud. In 2011, Jobs told his biographer that he had met with President Barack Obama, expressed concerns about the shortage of software engineers in the U.S., and suggested that foreign engineering students should automatically receive green cards. Jobs said the president was smart but frustrated by his explanations for why things could not be done.

Health problems

In October 2003, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer. In mid-2004, he told his employees he had a tumor in his pancreas. Pancreatic cancer has a poor chance of recovery, but Jobs had a rare, less aggressive type called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.

Jobs refused his doctors’ advice for nine months and chose alternative medicine instead. David Gorski, a cancer researcher who criticizes alternative medicine, said it is hard to know if Jobs’ choice reduced his chance of surviving cancer. He guessed Jobs may have slightly lowered his chance of survival. Barrie R. Cassileth, a doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said Jobs’ belief in alternative medicine likely cost his life. He had the only type of pancreatic cancer that can be treated and cured.

Biographer Walter Isaacson wrote that Jobs opposed surgery, saying he did not want his body to be operated on. For nine months, Jobs avoided surgery for his cancer, a decision he later regretted as his health worsened. Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies, and other online treatments. He also consulted a psychic and followed advice from a doctor who promoted unproven methods like juice fasts and bowel cleansings. Finally, in July 2004, Jobs had surgery called a pancreaticoduodenectomy, or "Whipple procedure," which seemed to remove the tumor. He did not receive chemotherapy or radiation. During his absence, Tim Cook, Apple’s head of sales and operations, managed the company.

In January 2006, only Jobs’ wife, his doctors, and Apple’s CEO at the time, Steve Jobs, knew his cancer had returned. Jobs told the CEO privately that he hoped to live long enough to see his son Reed’s high school graduation in 2010. In August 2006, Jobs gave a keynote speech at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. His thin appearance and tired delivery raised questions about his health, though some attendees said he looked fine. An Apple spokesperson said Jobs’ health was strong.

In 2008, similar concerns arose after Jobs gave another keynote. Apple officials said he had a "common bug" and was taking antibiotics, but others thought his weak appearance was due to the Whipple procedure. During a July conference call, Apple said Jobs’ health was a "private matter," even though some shareholders wanted more information. The New York Times reported that Jobs’ health issues were more serious than a "common bug" but not life-threatening, and he did not have a cancer recurrence.

On August 28, 2008, Bloomberg mistakenly published an obituary for Jobs, including blank spaces for his age and cause of death. The error was quickly fixed, but it fueled rumors about his health. Jobs responded at Apple’s September 2008 event by quoting Mark Twain: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Later, he showed a slide with "110/70," his blood pressure, and said he would not answer further questions about his health.

In December 2008, Apple announced that Phil Schiller would give the final keynote at Macworld 2009, again raising questions about Jobs’ health. On January 5, 2009, Jobs said he had been dealing with a "hormone imbalance" for several months.

On January 14, 2009, Jobs wrote in an Apple memo that his health issues were more complex than he had thought. He announced a six-month leave of absence until June 2009 to focus on his health. Tim Cook, who had previously managed Apple in 2004, became acting CEO, while Jobs remained involved in major decisions.

In 2009, Tim Cook offered part of his liver to Jobs, as they share a rare blood type. The donor liver can grow new tissue after surgery. Jobs refused, saying, "I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that." In April 2009, Jobs had a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. His prognosis was described as "excellent."

On January 17, 2011, Apple announced Jobs would take another leave of absence. He wrote to employees that he needed to focus on his health. Tim Cook again managed daily operations, while Jobs stayed involved in major decisions. During his leave, Jobs appeared at events like the iPad 2 launch and the WWDC keynote introducing iCloud.

On August 24, 2011, Jobs resigned as Apple’s CEO, writing to the board, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come." Jobs became chairman of the board and named Tim Cook as his successor. He continued working for Apple until the day before his death six weeks later.

Death

Steve Jobs passed away at his home in Palo Alto, California on October 5, 2011, because of complications from a return of a type of pancreatic tumor he had previously been treated for. This condition caused him to stop breathing. He lost consciousness the day before and was surrounded by his wife, children, and sisters when he died. His sister, Mona Simpson, shared that Steve’s final words, hours before he died, were short one-syllable words repeated three times. Before this, he looked at his sister Patty, then at his children, then at his partner, Laurene, and finally past them. His final words were: "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow." He then lost consciousness and died several hours later. A small private funeral was held on October 7, 2011. Details of the funeral were not made public out of respect for Jobs’s family.

Apple and Pixar both announced his death. Apple said on the same day that they would not hold a public service but encouraged people who wanted to send messages of remembrance to send them to a special email address. Apple and Microsoft both lowered their flags to half-staff at their headquarters and campuses.

Bob Iger, the leader of Disney, ordered all Disney properties, including Walt Disney World and Disneyland, to lower their flags to half-staff from October 6 to October 12, 2011. For two weeks after his death, Apple’s website displayed a simple page showing Jobs’s name, lifespan, and a grayscale portrait. On October 19, 2011, Apple employees held a private memorial service at the Apple campus in Cupertino. Jobs’s wife, Laurene, and others, including Tim Cook, Bill Campbell, Norah Jones, Al Gore, and Coldplay, attended. Some Apple stores closed briefly so employees could join the event. A video of the service was posted on Apple’s website.

California Governor Jerry Brown declared Sunday, October 16, 2011, as "Steve Jobs Day." An invitation-only memorial was held at Stanford University. Attendees included Apple and other tech company leaders, media members, celebrities, politicians, and family and friends of Jobs. Bono, Yo-Yo Ma, and Joan Baez performed at the event, which lasted more than an hour. Security was tight, with guards at all university gates and a helicopter flying overhead from a news station. Each attendee received a small brown box as a "farewell gift" from Jobs, containing a copy of The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.

Steve Wozniak, a childhood friend and Apple co-founder, George Lucas, former owner of Pixar, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and President Barack Obama all shared statements about Jobs’s death. At his request, Jobs was buried in an unmarked grave at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, the only nonsectarian cemetery in Palo Alto.

Innovations and designs

Steve Jobs's design style was influenced by the beliefs of Zen and Buddhism. During a seven-month spiritual journey in India, he learned about Buddhism. He also studied with spiritual people who helped shape his sense of intuition. Jobs learned about industrial design from Richard Sapper. Apple co-founder Wozniak said, "Steve didn't write any code. He wasn't an engineer and didn't create any original designs." Daniel Kottke, an early Apple employee and college friend of Jobs, said, "Woz was the innovator and inventor. Steve was more focused on marketing."

He is listed as a primary inventor or co-inventor in 346 United States patents or patent applications related to many technologies, including computers, portable devices, user interfaces, speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards, and packages. His contributions to most patents were about "the look and feel of the product." He and his industrial design chief, Jonathan Ive, are named in 200 of the patents. Most of these are design patents, which focus on specific product designs like the original and lamp-style iMacs and the PowerBook G4 Titanium. He holds 43 issued U.S. patents on inventions. One patent for the Mac OS X Dock user interface with a "magnification" feature was issued the day before he died. Although Jobs had little involvement in the engineering of the original Apple computers, he later used his CEO position to directly influence product design.

Throughout his career, Jobs worked with Joanna Hoffman, his long-time marketing executive and trusted friend. She was one of the few employees at Apple and NeXT who could successfully challenge Jobs while still working with him. Even while seriously ill in the hospital, Jobs sketched new devices to hold the iPad in a hospital bed. He disliked the oxygen monitor on his finger and suggested changes to make the design simpler.

The Apple I was designed entirely by Wozniak, but Jobs had the idea to sell the computer, which led to the founding of Apple Computer in 1976. Jobs and Wozniak built several Apple I prototypes by hand, using money from selling some of their belongings. Eventually, 200 units were made. One key innovation of the Apple I was that it included video display terminal circuitry on its circuit board, allowing it to connect to a low-cost composite video monitor or television instead of an expensive computer terminal, unlike most other computers at the time.

The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers. It was designed mainly by Wozniak. Jobs oversaw the development of the Apple II's unusual case, and Rod Holt created its unique power supply. Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977 as Apple's first consumer product. The Apple II was first sold on June 10, 1977.

The Lisa was a personal computer developed by Apple from 1978 and sold in the early 1980s to business users. It was the first personal computer with a graphical user interface. The Lisa sold poorly, with only 100,000 units sold, but it introduced advanced features that later appeared on the Macintosh and IBM PCs. In 1982, after Jobs was removed from the Lisa project, he took over the Macintosh project, drawing inspiration from the Lisa. The final Lisa 2/10 was later modified and sold as the Macintosh XL.

After joining the Macintosh team, Jobs took over the project after Wozniak left temporarily due to a traumatic airplane accident. Jobs launched the Macintosh on January 24, 1984, as the first mass-market personal computer with an integral graphical user interface and mouse. This model was later renamed Macintosh 128k. Since 1998, Apple has used the name "Mac" instead of "Macintosh," though the product family has been called "Mac" since its start. The Macintosh was introduced with a $1.5 million television commercial titled "1984" by Ridley Scott. It aired during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984, and was called a "watershed event" and "masterpiece." The ad used a heroine to symbolize the arrival of the Macintosh, shown by a Picasso-style image of the computer on her shirt, to represent saving people from the dominance of IBM. The ad referenced George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which describes a future ruled by a televised "Big Brother."

The Macintosh was expensive, which made it hard to compete with the Commodore 64 for consumers and the IBM Personal Computer for businesses. However, Macintosh systems found success in education and desktop publishing, keeping Apple as the second-largest PC manufacturer for the next decade.

After being forced out of Apple in 1985, Jobs started NeXT, a workstation computer company. The NeXT Computer was introduced in 1988 at a grand event. Using the NeXT Computer, Tim Berners-Lee created the first web browser, the WorldWideWeb. The NeXT Computer's operating system, NeXTSTEP, led to Darwin, which is now the basis for Apple's operating systems, including macOS and iOS.

Apple's iMac G3 was introduced in 1998, and its design was directly influenced by Jobs's return to Apple. Apple claimed, "The back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else's." The first iMac, covered in Bondi Blue plastic, looked unlike any personal computer before it. In 1999, Apple released the Graphite gray iMac and later changed its shape, color, and size while keeping the all-in-one design. Features like the handle and a "breathing" light effect were added to connect with users. The iMac sold for $1,299 at the time. The iMac's changes included removing floppy disk drives and using USB for connecting peripherals. The iMac's success helped popularize USB among third-party makers, as many early USB devices were made of translucent plastic to match the iMac's style.

iTunes is a media player, library, online radio broadcaster, and mobile device management app made by Apple. It is used to play, download, and organize digital audio and video on computers running macOS or Windows. The iTunes Store is also available on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad.

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Personal life

Steve Jobs was known for often being barefoot in public. This habit came from his background, which was different from most people’s. It was shown in movies like Pirates of Silicon Valley and Jobs. His behavior influenced American business culture, and some other business leaders, like Adam Neumann, also started being barefoot in public.

In 1989, Steve Jobs met his future wife, Laurene Powell, when he gave a speech at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She was a student there. After the speech, he said she was in the front row and that he could not stop looking at her. He felt nervous and forgot parts of his speech. Later, he met her in the parking lot and asked her to dinner. They stayed together for the rest of his life, except for a few short times.

Steve proposed to Laurene on New Year’s Day 1990. They married on March 18, 1991, in a Buddhist ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. Fifty people, including Jobs’s father, Paul, and his sister, Mona, attended. The ceremony was led by Jobs’s teacher, Kobun Chino Otogawa. The cake was made without animal products and shaped like Yosemite’s Half Dome. The wedding ended with a hike and a snowball fight with Laurene’s brothers. Jobs told his sister, Mona, that Laurene was related to Joe Namath and that Jobs’s family was related to John Muir.

Jobs and Powell had a son named Reed in 1991. Jobs’s father, Paul, died in 1993. Jobs’s childhood home is now a tourist attraction and is owned by his stepmother, Marilyn Jobs. Jobs and Powell had two more children: Erin, born in 1995, and Eve, born in 1998. Eve became a fashion model. The family lived in Palo Alto, California. Although Jobs was very rich, he said most of his money would not go to his children, like Bill Gates had done.

Chrisann Brennan said that after Jobs left Apple, he apologized many times for how he treated her and their daughter, Lisa. He said he never took responsibility before and was sorry. By then, Jobs had a strong relationship with Lisa. When Lisa was nine, Jobs changed her name from "Lisa Brennan" to "Lisa Brennan-Jobs." Jobs and Brennan worked together to raise Lisa, a change Brennan said was helped by Mona Simpson, Jobs’s biological sister. Jobs found Mona after learning about his birth mother, Joanne Schieble Simpson, who worked to improve the relationship between Lisa and Jobs.

Jobs did not contact his birth family while his adoptive mother, Clara, was alive. He told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he did not want Clara or his adoptive father, Paul, to feel like he did not consider them his parents. He asked reporters to keep his search for his birth mother a secret. In 1986, when Clara was diagnosed with lung cancer, Jobs spent more time with her and learned about his adoption. This led him to find his birth mother. He found the name of the doctor who helped Joanne Schieble when she was pregnant. The doctor left a letter for Jobs to read after his death. The letter said Joanne was a young, unmarried graduate student from Wisconsin.

Jobs only contacted Joanne after Clara died in 1986 and after getting permission from his father, Paul. He asked the media not to report on his search. Jobs said he wanted to find his birth mother out of curiosity and to thank her for giving him life. Joanne was emotional during their first meeting and said she had been pressured into signing the adoption papers. She apologized to Jobs for giving him up. Jobs and Joanne became friends and spent Christmas together.

During their first meeting, Joanne told Jobs he had a sister named Mona, who did not know about him. Joanne arranged for them to meet in New York, where Mona worked. Mona said Jobs was kind and honest. They took a long walk to get to know each other. Jobs later said Mona was not happy at first to have him in her life but became a close friend. He called her his family.

Jobs learned about his family history after meeting Joanne. Six months after his birth, Joanne’s father died, and she married Abdulfattah Jandali. They had a daughter, Mona. Jandali said he left teaching to work in a restaurant and later divorced Joanne. In 1962, they lost contact with Mona for a time. Joanne later married George Simpson, and Mona took his last name, becoming Mona Simpson. In 1970, Joanne raised Mona alone in Los Angeles.

When Mona Simpson found out that Jandali was living in Sacramento, California, Jobs did not want to meet him. He believed Jandali had not treated his children well. A newspaper article said Jandali had left students stranded in Egypt in 1974. Simpson met Jandali alone in Sacramento. He worked in a small restaurant and said he had given another child up for adoption. He did not know Jobs was his son. Jobs asked Simpson not to tell Jandali about their relationship.

After meeting Jandali, Jobs remembered visiting the restaurant where Jandali worked. He said the owner was Syrian and balding. However, Jobs still did not want to meet Jandali because he was wealthy and feared Jandali might try to take money or ask the press for attention.

Honors and awards

• 1985: received the National Medal of Technology (with Steve Wozniak) from U.S. president Ronald Reagan, the country's most important honor for technological achievements
• 1987: received the Jefferson Award for Public Service
• 1989: named Entrepreneur of the Decade by Inc.
• 1991: received the Howard Vollum Award from Reed College
• 2004–2010: named among the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World five times
• 2007: named the most powerful person in business by Fortune magazine
• 2007: inducted into the California Hall of Fame at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts
• 2012: received the Grammy Trustees Award, given to people who helped the music industry in ways not related to performing
• 2012: honored after his death with an Edison Achievement Award for his work to create new ideas throughout his career
• 2013: inducted after his death as a Disney Legend
• 2017: Steve Jobs Theater opened at Apple Park
• 2022: awarded after his death the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. president Joe Biden, the country's most important honor for non-military people