Born: 24 February 1955
Birthplace: San Francisco, California
Died: 5 October 2011 (cancer)
Best Known As: The co-founder and mastermind of Apple computers
Steve Jobs was a college dropout when he teamed up with Steve Wozniak in 1976 to sell personal computers assembled in Jobs' garage. That was the beginning of Apple Computers, which revolutionized the computing industry and made Steve Jobs a multimillionaire before he was 30 years old. He was forced out of the company in 1985 and started the NeXT Corporation, but returned to his old company in 1996 when Apple bought NeXT. Steve Jobs soon became Apple's chief executive officer and sparked a resurgence in the company with products like the colorful iMac computer and the iPod music player. Steve Jobs was also the CEO of Pixar, the animation company responsible for movies like Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. Pixar was purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock; the deal made Jobs the largest individual shareholder of Disney stock. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 and had surgery in July of 2004, and was criticized by some for not disclosing his illness to stockholders until after the fact. His health was in the news again in 2008, when his extreme weight loss sparked rumors that his cancer had recurred. Jobs refused to speak publicly about his health, but in January of 2009 he took a formal six-month leave of absence from Apple, saying that his health problems were "more complex than I originally thought." He had a liver transplant later that year and returned to work at Apple in June of 2009. In January of 2011 he again announced, without offering details, that he was taking a medical leave of absence. He resigned as Apple CEO on 24 August 2011, saying "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." He remained with the company as Chairman of the Board until he died about five weeks later.

Some sources list Los Altos, California as Steve Jobs's place of birth. However, in a 1995 oral history interview with The Smithsonian, Jobs said, "I was born in San Francisco, California, USA, planet Earth, February 24, 1955." Jobs was given up for adoption after birth and raised by his adoptive parents in Silicon Valley... His biological sister is novelist Mona Simpson, the author of Anywhere But Here... Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon for one semester in 1972 before dropping out... He married the former Laurene Powell on 18 March 1991. They have three children: Eve, Erin, and Reed. Jobs also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, born in 1978 to Jobs and his then-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan.



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