Creating Apple

In 1976, while I was married, having kids and raising a family, a man named Steve Jobs was creating Apple, a company that would change my life and the lives of many other people. At that time, most of us hadn’t really heard of computers, much less actually used one. Nevertheless, the future would bring a computer in almost every home, and in fact, one in almost every hand. My own introduction to the world of computers would come a little over a decade later when I went to work for an agent with Farmers Insurance. The computer we had there was a closed DOS system, so there was nothing like the internet and surfing the web. For me, that would come yet another decade later while working for an Allstate agent…again on a closed system. By that time, I was hooked and that closed system just didn’t do it for me anymore. So, as a mother of two and a grandmother of three (at that time…one more grandson would follow very soon), I bought my first computer…a Gateway. It was a good computer, but nothing like the models we have today, and these days, it would have driven me up a wall. My phone is, of course, an iPhone, and my computer is a Lenovo laptop. One day maybe I will have a Mac laptop. We shall see. My niece, Liz Masterson loves them.

My iPhone is by far my favorite item, so I guess, I have Steve Jobs, and his associates, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne to thank for that. Apple Inc, which was originally Apple Computer, Inc, is a multinational corporation that creates and markets consumer electronics and attendant computer software and is a digital distributor of media content. Apple’s core product lines are the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet computer, and the Mac personal computer. The company offers its products online and has a chain of retail stores known as Apple Stores. The men founded the company on April 1, 1976, in the childhood family home of Steve Jobs on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California.  The original site of Apple Computer, Inc, was added to a list of historic Los Altos sites in 2013. They started the company to market Wozniak’s Apple I desktop computer. Jobs and Wozniak incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California.

Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, to Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah “John” Jandali. Because Jandali was Muslim, Schieble’s parents objected to the marriage, so she traveled to San Francisco to give birth to her son and place him for adoption. Schieble requested that her son be adopted by college graduates. A lawyer and his wife were selected, but they withdrew after discovering that the baby was a boy, so Jobs was instead adopted by Paul Reinhold and Clara (née Hagopian) Jobs. Since they lacked a college education, Schieble initially refused to sign the adoption papers and went to court to request that her son be removed from the Jobs household and placed with a different family but changed her mind after Paul and Clara promised to pay for their son’s college tuition. He chose Reed College, which was an expensive college, and after a year, dropped out because he didn’t want to financially burden his parents. Instead he audited the courses he wanted to take, and while he never got a degree, he did get the necessary knowledge. And so began the life and career of a man who would change technology.

Jobs’ vision for user-friendly devices began with the Apple I and grew rapidly from there with groundbreaking products like the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Jobs was a man known for his perfectionism and marketing genius. He was perfect for that company, and he revolutionized personal computing, music, and mobile communication. He inspired the global tech revolution with his “Think Different” philosophy, making Apple one of the most influential companies in history. He left a legacy defined by his innovation, creativity, and relentless pursuit of excellence. In 1985, Jobs was awarded the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan, awarded jointly with Steve Wozniak. Unfortunately, he died far too young from pancreatic cancer complications on October 5, 2011, at the age of just 56 years.