News arrived of the death of Steve Jobs (photo ©Matt Yohe). Alas, it’s not a surprise because a few weeks ago he announced he was leaving Apple for health reasons.

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California. Son of Syrian immigrants, he was given up for adoption.

Ever since he was very young, Steve Jobs became interested in technology. To earn some money he worked during summer for Hewlett-Packard, where he met his future partner Steve Wozniack. He studied for one semester at Reed College in Portland but then abandoned it and went to work for Atari, again with Wozniack.

In 1976 Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniack and Ronald Wayne founded Apple. In 1984 the Macintosh was introduced, one of the milestones in computer history. In 1985 an internal struggle at Apple ended with Steve Jobs being fired by CEO John Sculley.

After his exit from Apple, Steve Jobs founded NeXT Computer, where he designed incredibly advanced computers. He was too far ahead of his time and those products weren’t successful so in 1993 the company abandoned hardware production.

In 1986 Steve Jobs also bought The Graphics Group, whose name he changed to Pixar, a company specialized in special effects that made ​​a contract with Disney to produce a series of animated movies created with computers. In 2006 Pixar was bought by Disney for $7.4 billion. Steve Jobs had bought it for $10 million.

In 1996 Apple announced the purchase of NeXT, bringing Steve Jobs back into the company, of which he became the de facto CEO even if initially he was only an interim and only later he was confirmed in that role. Many NeXT inventions were adapted into Apple products and further developed.

Apple started a new golden era with the release of the iMac and Mac OS X. Steve Jobs went beyond the world of computers and that was how iPod and iPhone were created, products that led the company to a success never seen before.

Steve Jobs had been married to Laurene Powell since 1991. In 1978 he had a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from a relationship with painter Chrisann Brennan: he initially denied paternity and only later recognized that Lisa was his daughter. The project Apple Lisa however was so named because it was the name of his daughter.

In 2004 Steve Jobs announced he had pancreas cancer. From that moment his health had ups and downs and in 2009 he had to undergo a liver transplant. A little over a month ago he resigned because he felt he could no longer meet his duties.

The death of Steve Jobs has been commented with emotion by the most famous people in the world of technology but also in politics confirming, like if it were still needed, his importance. Google founders, despite the fierce war going on with Apple, have paid a tribute as well.

To his fans Steve Jobs was almost a religious figure, his detractors considered him ruthless and egomaniacal. Whatever you think, he was a great innovator who in one way or another brought the most advanced technology in the homes of ordinary people. His mantra “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” will remain, among the other things he gave us, a source of inspiration.