Steve Jobs
Founder, Visionary, Innovator
Biography: Early Life to Death
Steve Jobs was born in 1955, his parents
names were Paul and Clara, who adopted him and raised him in
Cupertino, Cal
ifornia.
His family was lower-middle class; his father was a machinist, and
his mother was a bookkeeper. In school, Jobs was a disobedient
student and frequently got bullied so badly that he had to transfer
schools. He developed an interest in electronics during high school
and built "blue boxes," a telecommunications device used for
long-distance calls. This project caused his interest in technology
and business. He briefly attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon,
but he dropped out after one semester. Jobs afterward traveled to
India for seven months in search of spiritual enlightenment and
experimented with LSD. He went on to work on an apple farm owned by
one of his friends, which inspired him later on to name his
now-famous company Apple Inc.
Jobs originally started working for Atari as a computer
technician and video game designer, he designed circuit boards for
the "Breakout" vi
deo
game in collaboration with Steve Wozniak, a longtime friend from
school. Soon, they were engineering what would become Apple, Inc.
Wozniak had built the Apple I computer, and Jobs convinced him to
sell the invention to hobbyists. With money from selling Jobs' car
and Wozniak's calculator, they launched Apple out of Jobs' parents
garage. Later, Jobs went on to found NeXT Computers, which
specialized in high-end computer workstations for businesses and
education. One of NeXT's computers was even used to create the World
Wide Web. Eventually, Apple acquired NeXT, and Jobs returned to the
company he founded.
In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a rare pancreatic cancer.
Initially, he tried alternative treatments, such as a pesco-v
egetarian
diet, before finally having surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. By
2008, his failing health became public knowledge, and Apple's stock
suffered. Under pressure from investors, Jobs took a leave of
absence from his corporate duties. He started working again in June
2009 and went on a final medical leave in January 2011. Jobs passed
on in October 2011, surrounded by his family.
