Personal life
Jobs married Laurene Powell on March 18, 1991. Presiding over the wedding was the Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino Otogawa.[98] The couple have a son and two daughters.[99] Jobs also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs (born 1978), from his relationship with Bay Area painter Chrisann Brennan.[100] She briefly raised their daughter on welfare when Jobs denied paternity by claiming he was sterile; he later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.[100]
In the unauthorized biography, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, author Alan Deutschman reports that Jobs once dated Joan Baez. Deutschman quotes Elizabeth Holmes, a friend of Jobs from his time at Reed College, as saying she "believed that Steve became the lover of Joan Baez in large measure because Baez had been the lover of Bob Dylan" (Dylan was the Apple icon's favorite musician). The biography also notes that Jobs went out with actress Diane Keaton briefly.[citation needed] In another unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon, the authors suggest that Jobs might have married Baez, but her age at the time (41) meant it was unlikely the couple could have children.
Jobs was also a fan of The Beatles. He referred to them on multiple occasions at Keynotes and also was interviewed on a showing of a Paul McCartney concert. When asked about his business model on 60 Minutes, he replied:
My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people.[101]
In 1982, Jobs bought an apartment in The San Remo, an apartment building in New York City with a politically progressive reputation, whereDemi Moore, Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin, and Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, daughter of Rita Hayworth, also had apartments. With the help of I.M. Pei, Jobs spent years renovating his apartment in the top two floors of the building's north tower, only to sell it almost two decades later to U2 singer Bono. Jobs had never moved in.[102][103]
In 1984, Jobs purchased a 17,000-square-foot (1,600 m2), 14-bedroom Spanish Colonial mansion, designed by George Washington Smith, inWoodside, California (also known as Jackling House). Although it reportedly remained in an almost unfurnished state, Jobs lived in the mansion for almost ten years. According to reports, he kept an old BMW motorcycle in the living room, and let Bill Clinton use it in 1998. From the early 1990s, Jobs lived in a house in the Old Palo Alto neighborhood of Palo Alto. President Clinton dined with Jobs and 14 Silicon Valley CEOs there on August 7, 1996, at a meal catered by Greens Restaurant.[104][105] Clinton returned the favor and Jobs, who was aDemocratic donor, slept in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House.[106]
Jobs allowed Jackling House to fall into a state of disrepair, planning to demolish the house and build a smaller home on the property; but he met with complaints from local preservationists over his plans. In June 2004, the Woodside Town Council gave Jobs approval to demolish the mansion, on the condition that he advertise the property for a year to see if someone would move it to another location and restore it. A number of people expressed interest, including several with experience in restoring old property, but no agreements to that effect were reached. Later that same year, a local preservationist group began seeking legal action to prevent demolition. In January 2007 Jobs was denied the right to demolish the property, by a court decision.[107] The court decision was overturned on appeal in March 2010 and the mansion was demolished beginning February 2011.[108]
Jobs usually wore a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by St. Croix, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers.[109] He was a pescetarian, one whose diet includes fish but no other meat.[110][111]
Jobs had a public war of words with Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, starting[when?] when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes".[114] On October 6, 1997, in a Gartner Symposium, when Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he owned then-troubled Apple Computer, he said "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."[115] In 2006, Steve Jobs sent an email to all employees when Apple's market capitalization rose above Dell's. The email read:
Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.[116]
[edit]Health
In mid-2004, Jobs announced to his employees that he had been diagnosed with a canceroustumor in his pancreas.[117] The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is usually very poor; Jobs, however, stated that he had a rare, far less aggressive type known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.[117] Jobs resisted his doctors' recommendations for evidence-based medical intervention for nine months,[118] instead consuming a special alternative medicine diet to thwart the disease, before eventually undergoing a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or "Whipple procedure") in July 2004 that appeared to successfully remove the tumor.[119][120] Jobs apparently did not require nor receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy.[117][121] During Jobs' absence, Timothy D. Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.[117]
In early August 2006, Jobs delivered the keynote for Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. His "thin, almost gaunt" appearance and unusually "listless" delivery,[122][123]together with his choice to delegate significant portions of his keynote to other presenters, inspired a flurry of media and Internet speculation about his health.[124] In contrast, according to an Ars Technica journal report, WWDC attendees who saw Jobs in person said he "looked fine".[125]Following the keynote, an Apple spokesperson said that "Steve's health is robust."[126]
[edit]2008 development
Two years later, similar concerns followed Jobs' 2008 WWDC keynote address.[127] Apple officials stated Jobs was victim to a "common bug" and was taking antibiotics,[128] while others surmised his cachectic appearance was due to the Whipple procedure.[129] During a July conference call discussing Apple earnings, participants responded to repeated questions about Steve Jobs' health by insisting that it was a "private matter". Others, however, voiced the opinion that shareholders had a right to know more, given Jobs' hands-on approach to running his company.[130] The New York Times published an article based on an off-the-record phone conversation with Jobs, noting that "while his health issues have amounted to a good deal more than 'a common bug,' they weren't life-threatening and he doesn't have a recurrence of cancer."[131]
On August 28, 2008, Bloomberg mistakenly published a 2500-word obituary of Jobs in its corporate news service, containing blank spaces for his age and cause of death. (News carriers customarily stockpile up-to-date obituaries to facilitate news delivery in the event of a well-known figure's untimely death.) Although the error was promptly rectified, many news carriers and blogs reported on it,[132][133] intensifying rumors concerning Jobs' health.[134] Jobs responded at Apple's September 2008 Let's Rock keynote by quoting Mark Twain: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."[135] At a subsequent media event, Jobs concluded his presentation with a slide reading "110/70", referring to hisblood pressure, stating he would not address further questions about his health.[136]
On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that marketing vice-president Phil Schiller would deliver the company's final keynote address at theMacworld Conference and Expo 2009, again reviving questions about Jobs' health.[137][138] In a statement given on January 5, 2009 onApple.com,[139] Jobs said that he had been suffering from a "hormone imbalance" for several months.[140] On January 14, 2009, in an internal Apple memo, Jobs wrote that in the previous week he had "learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought" and announced a six-month leave of absence until the end of June 2009 to allow him to better focus on his health. Tim Cook, who had previously acted as CEO in Jobs' 2004 absence, became acting CEO of Apple,[141] with Jobs still involved with "major strategic decisions."[141]
In April 2009, Jobs underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee.[142] Jobs' prognosis was "excellent".[142]
[edit]2011 medical leave and resignation
On January 17, 2011, a year and a half after Jobs returned from his liver transplant, Apple announced that he had been granted a medical leave of absence. Jobs announced his leave in a letter to employees, stating his decision was made "so he could focus on his health". As during his 2009 medical leave, Apple announced that Tim Cook would run day-to-day operations and that Jobs would continue to be involved in major strategic decisions at the company.[143][144] Despite the leave, he made appearances at the iPad 2 launch event (March 2), theWWDC keynote introducing iCloud (June 6), and before the Cupertino city council (June 7).[145]
Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO on August 24, 2011. In his resignation letter, Jobs wrote that he could "no longer meet [his] duties and expectations as Apple's CEO".[146]
[edit]Death
Apple released a separate statement saying that Jobs had died.[20][149] The statement read "We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."
Also on October 5, 2011, Apple's corporate website greeted visitors with a simple page showing Jobs' name and lifespan next to his greyscale portrait. Clicking on Jobs' image led to an obituary that read "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple." An email address was also posted for the public to share their memories, condolences, and thoughts.[150]
Jobs is survived by his wife, Laurene, to whom he was married for 20 years; their three children, Reed (born 1991), Erin (born 1995), and Eve (born 1998); and a fourth child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from a previous relationship.[151]
Statements reacting to Jobs' death were released by several notable people, including U.S.President Barack Obama, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and The Walt Disney Company's Bob Iger.Wired collected reactions and posted them in tribute on their homepage.[152]
[edit]Honors
Jobs was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 withSteve Wozniak (among the first people to ever receive the honor),[153] and a Jefferson Award for Public Service in the category "Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under" (also known as the Samuel S. Beard Award) in 1987.[154] On November 27, 2007, Jobs was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune Magazine.[155] On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Jobs into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.[156]
In August 2009, Jobs was selected as the most admired entrepreneur among teenagers in a survey by Junior Achievement.[157] On November 5, 2009, Jobs was named the CEO of the decade by Fortune Magazine.[29] In September 2011, Jobs was ranked No.17 on Forbes: The World's Most Powerful People.[158] In December 2010, the Financial Times named Jobs its person of the year for 2010, ending its essay by stating, "In his autobiography, John Sculley, the former PepsiCo executive who once ran Apple, said this of the ambitions of the man he had pushed out: 'Apple was supposed to become a wonderful consumer products company. This was a lunatic plan. High-tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product.' How wrong can you be".[159]
[edit]In popular culture
Due to his youth, great wealth, and charisma, after Apple's founding, Jobs became a symbol of his company and industry. When Time named the computer as the 1982 "Machine of the Year", the magazine published a long profile of Steve as "the most famous maestro of the micro".[160][161] In 2011 Jobs was voted Best Business Entrepreneur On Earth. Jobs was prominently featured in four productions about the history of the personal computing industry:
- Triumph of the Nerds – a 1996 three-part documentary for PBS, about the rise of the home computer/personal computer.
- Nerds 2.0.1 – a 1998 three-part documentary for PBS, (and sequel to Triumph of the Nerds) which chronicles the development of the Internet.
- Pirates of Silicon Valley – a 1999 docudrama which chronicles the rise of Apple and Microsoft. He was portrayed by Noah Wyle.
- The Machine that Changed the World (1992) – Part 3 of this 5-part documentary, called The Paperback Computer, prominently featured Jobs and his role in the early days of Apple.
After his resignation as Apple's CEO, Jobs was characterized as the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford of his time.[162][163]
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