Background

Ethnicity: Steve's paternal grandfather was of Polish descent, while his paternal grandmother had Swiss-German and German ancestry. Steve's mother was of German, Northern Irish, and English descent.

Steve Wozniak was born on August 11, 1950, in San Jose, California, the United States, to Margaret Elaine (Kern) and Jacob Francis "Jerry" Wozniak. His name technically is not Stephen Wozniak. It’s "Stephan Wozniak," according to his 1950 birth certificate.

Wozniak was the eldest of three children. When he was eight, the family, including two other children, Leslie and Mark, moved to nearby Sunnyvale to be closer to his father's job at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company.

Education

Steve was fascinated by electronics at an early age. Although he was never a star student in the traditional sense, Wozniak had an aptitude for building working electronics from scratch. As a kid, he indulged in making homemade devices like voltmeter, ham radio, calculator, and games.

Wozniak became interested in mathematics when he was in the fourth grade. The recognition and encouragement of a teacher helped to improve his self-esteem. Wozniak loved to read; his favorite books were about Tom Swift, Jr., a young engineer who worked with his father inventing airplanes and rocket ships. In the fifth grade, after reading a book about a ham radio operator, Wozniak built his own radio transmitter and receiver form a kit. At 11, he built a machine he called a "ticktacktoe" computer. He also played on an all-star Little League team and ran in races. In junior high, Wozniak received a letter for swimming. At Cupertino Junior High School, Wozniak won a blue ribbon for the best electronics project at the Bay Area Science Fair. He designed a binary adding and subtracting computer.

Steve Wozniak graduated from Homestead High School in 1968. At Homestead High School, Wozniak was too advanced for the electronics and math courses. A precocious but undisciplined student with a gift for mathematics and an interest in electronics, he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder for one year (1968-1969) before dropping out. Following his return to California, he attended De Anza College and then the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer science and electrical engineering in 1986 after retiring from Apple.

In December 2005, Wozniak was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Kettering University. He also received honorary degrees from North Carolina State University and Nova Southeastern University, and the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology. In May 2011, Wozniak received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Michigan State University. In June 2012, Wozniak was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Santa Clara University.

Career

At the end of his junior year, and short on money, Wozniak got a job at Hewlett-Packard (HP), an electronics company in Palo Alto, California. Within several months, he was a full engineer. At the center of the computer revolution, HP suited Wozniak because of its advanced technology and its laid-back atmosphere. The company allowed employees to work on their own projects at night. Wozniak created some of the first graphics for computers and computer games.

During his brief stint at the University of California at Berkeley, Steve Wozniak met Steve Jobs, who was still in high school, through a mutual friend. Working at night at HP, Wozniak completed his computer design. When Jobs saw it, he thought it could be a commercial success and wanted to market it. While Wozniak would not leave his day job, he agreed to form a computer company with Jobs.

The two later paired up to form Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, prompting Wozniak to quit his job at Hewlett-Packard. Working out of a family garage, he and Jobs attempted to produce a user-friendly alternative to the computers that were being introduced by International Business Machines at that time. Wozniak worked on the invention of products, and Jobs was responsible for marketing.

Having sold personal possessions to raise money, they decided to work in the Jobs family's garage. By luck and determination, one month later they received an order for 100 computers for a total of $50,000. When he showed the computer at work, management decided that his personal computer did not match its business focus. The partners eventually sold 175 Apple I computers.

While Wozniak was still working for HP, he spent his nights improving Apple, while Jobs figured out how to market it. Through contacts, Jobs recruited Mike Markkula, a marketing genius who had retired at age 33, to help run the company. In January of 1977, the trio incorporated Apple Computer. The company moved to larger quarters twice, recruited an ever-growing staff, and acquired an eye-catching logo-a a rainbow-colored apple with a bite taken out of it. The launch of the Apple II was scheduled to coincide with the first West Coast Computer Faire. Priced at only $1,298, the computer was a great success. By the end of its first year, the company had made almost three-quarters of a million dollars in sales with a profit of $42,000.

By 1983, Apple had a stock value of $985 million. Wozniak ended his employment with Apple in 1985. Wozniak helped start a new company, CL9, to develop an infrared remote control device that would control household appliances. He continued to feud with Jobs, who felt betrayed because Wozniak had left Apple. When Wozniak discovered that Jobs had not evenly split the money earned from the development of the Breakout game, their relationship was further strained.

In 1989, Wozniak sold the unsuccessful CL9. Since then, he has spent most of his time donating money to various charitable organizations in San Jose, including the Tech Museum of Innovation, the Children's Discovery Museum, and the San Jose-Cleveland Ballet.

Called one of "Silicon Valley's most creative engineers," in 1990, he joined Mitchell Kapor in establishing the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that provides legal aid for computer hackers facing criminal prosecution. Wozniak also founded Wheels of Zeus (WoZ) in 2002, a venture started with the aim of developing wireless GPS technology.

After WoZ closed in 2006, Wozniak published his autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It. In 2008, he joined the Salt Lake City-based start-up Fusion-io as its chief scientist.

In 2006 Wozniak published his autobiography, iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.

In 2009 he became the chief scientist at Fusion-Io, an American company that produces high-capacity, solid-state storage devices. Wozniak was serving on the company’s board of directors when he decided to become a full-time employee. After Fusion-io was sold to SanDisk in 2014, Wozniak left the company to become chief scientist at Primary Data, which was involved in data virtualization; that business shut down in 2018.

Achievements

• 

  Wozniak is one of the true pioneers of the computer age. By designing a simple-to-use and relatively inexpensive microcomputer, he helped to create the personal computer business that has transformed modern life. More of an inventive engineer than a businessman, Wozniak's computer designs have become standard in the technological revolution that he helped to start.
  
  Wozniak has used the fortune he gained from his inventions to make a difference in his community and in the world. He has brought people together for rock music, accelerated the thaw in American-Soviet relations by offering computer expertise and arranging exchanges, and served in his local community as a teacher of the next generation of computer wizards.
  
  For his work on designing personal computers, Wozniak was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1985, Isaac Asimov Science Award in 2011, Global Award of the President of Armenia for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity Through IT, and many other awards. He is the proud recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from various universities including Kettering University, North Carolina State University, Nova Southeastern University, Michigan State University, Santa Clara University, University Camilo Jose Cela in Madrid, Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria in Lima, Concordia University in Montreal Canada and ESPOL University in Ecuador. In 2000, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

    (Steve Wozniak invented the first true personal computer. ...)

    2006

• design

  • Apple I

    1976

  • Apple II

    1977

Religion

Wozniak said: "I am also atheist or agnostic (I don't even know the difference). I've never been to church and prefer to think for myself. I do believe that religions stand for good things and that if you make irrational sacrifices for a religion, then everyone can tell that your religion is important to you and can trust that your most important inner faiths are strong."

Politics

Wozniak supported Bernie Sanders during the presidential elections. He also used the Economic Times Global Business Summit platform to express his resentment to the United States President Donald Trump: "I cannot stand Donald Trump. The way he treats people is very negative. I may like his policies, but from now on I will make sure I never attend any event where members of his family are present."

This was not the first time Wozniak had made such comments against Trump. In an interview with Time Magazine, Wozniak talked about how Trump's behavior toward women and children appalled him and reduced him to tears: "Donald Trump is a very rude person. Would I ever want a child of mine to grow up talking that nastily about other people? Absolutely not. It just offends me. I watched him making comments about women and I was just crying out loud, right here in this chair in my office."

Views

Wozniak was a key contributor and benefactor to the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. He has given countless computers to classrooms across his home state of California, going as far as teaching computer basics to fifth graders. His giving nature has added to the fabric of his community in museums, children's institutions, and art organizations. To mark the outstanding contribution made by him, the street in front of the museum has been named Woz Way in his honor.

Wozniak also gave significant funding to help establish the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The EFF is an international organization that fights for human interests in the territory of computers and telecommunications. From bloggers' rights to privacy acts on the Internet, the EFF has had a hand in shaping the legal woes of the World Wide Web.

The highly anticipated biopic Jobs was released in 2013 and featured actor Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and comedic actor Josh Gad as Wozniak. In addition to the negative critiques that the film received, Wozniak himself gave the film a negative review on the website Gizmodo. In his analysis, he wrote, "I felt bad for many people I know well who were portrayed wrongly in their interactions with Jobs and the company." He went on to write that the inaccuracies in the portrayal of Jobs in the film most likely stemmed from Kutcher's own image of him. Kutcher responded by claiming that the film lost the support of Wozniak because he was already supporting another film that depicted the life of the technology mogul. He also said that Wozniak was "extremely unavailable" during the filmmaking process.

Quotations: "I wish to God that Apple and Google were partners in the future."

"If you love what you do and are willing to do what it takes, it's within your reach."

"My primary phone is the iPhone. I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do."

"Like people including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have predicted, I agree that the future is scary and very bad for people. If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they'll think faster than us and they'll get rid of the slow humans to run companies more efficiently."

"Most inventors and engineers I've met are like me. They're shy and they live in their heads. The very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone."

"All of a sudden, we've lost a lot of control,' he said. 'We can't turn off our internet; we can't turn off our smartphones; we can't turn off our computers. You used to ask a smart person a question. Now, who do you ask? It starts with g-o, and it's not God."

"Steve Jobs doesn't use a Mac, and won't because it's too crappy in his opinion."

"I don't believe anything really revolutionary has ever been invented by committee... I'm going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone... Not on a committee. Not on a team."

"I learned not to worry so much about the outcome, but to concentrate on the step I was on and to try to do it as perfectly as I could when I was doing it."

"To give of yourself is much more important than giving a gift you can buy."

"I hope you're as lucky as I am. The world needs inventors - great ones. You can be one. If you love what you do and are willing to do what it really takes, it's within your reach. And it'll be worth every minute you spend alone at night, thinking and thinking about what it is you want to design or build. It'll be worth it, I promise."

Membership

Wozniak is a Freemason, despite not having faith in a supreme being (which is required by Masonic rules except in "Liberal" or Continental Freemasonry). Wozniak describes his impetus for joining the Freemasons as being able to spend more time with his then-wife, Alice Robertson, who belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star, associated with the Masons. Wozniak has said that he quickly rose to a third-degree Freemason because, whatever he does, he tries to do well. He was initiated in 1979 at Charity Lodge No. 362 in Campbell, California, now part of Mt. Moriah Lodge No. 292 in Los Gatos.

• 

  Masonic lodge

  1979

Personality

In 1981 Wozniak sat at the wheel of a small aircraft and was seriously injured when it crashed on the runway. He sustained a number of head injuries that temporarily affected his short-term memory, but he bounced back. According to his autobiography, iWoz, the Apple II computer games are what helped him regain his memory.

Woz is a member of the Silicon Valley Aftershocks - a Segway Polo tea. He says that he takes his Segway almost everywhere with him. He is also a self-proclaimed prankster and is one of the first people to Photoshop something for the sake of a joke.

In the 90s, Woz submitted so many high scores of the classic Gameboy game Tetris to Nintendo Power magazine that they eventually refused to print them. So, Woz began sending them under the name "Evets Kainzow."

Despite his intelligence, Steve suffers from prosopagnosia, a cognitive disorder that impairs someone’s ability to perceive familiar faces, even his own.

Interests

• tetris

• Politicians

  Bernie Sanders

• Writers

  Victor Appleton, Harriet Adams

• Sport & Clubs

  Segway polo, swimming

• Music & Bands

  Jazz

Connections

Wozniak was first married to Alice Robertson in 1976. Their relationship did not work for the better and later ended in 1979. Two years later, he married the athlete, Candice Clark, on June 13, 1981. They had three children together including the United States Olympic Committee lawyer, Sara Clark. It was Steve who filed for their divorce that was finalized in 1987. From 1990 to 2004 he was married to Suzanne Mulkern.

Many years after his failed marriages it was rumored that Steve was dating the actress Kathy Griffin. They were first seen at the 2007 Emmy Awards. They were seen multiple times in public after that including the Silicon Valley Fur Ball to which they became the King and Queen of the Humane Society on April 05, 2008. They were later reported to have broken up in June 2008.

In August 2008, just a few months after the confirmation of his breakup with Kathie, Steve got married to Janet Hill. To this day, he and Janet are still happy together.

Father:

Jacob Francis "Jerry" Wozniak

Wozniak's father was an engineer for Lockheed and always inspired his son's curiosity for learning with a few science fair projects. He gave Steve his first crystal set at the age of 6. Wozniak got his ham radio license in the sixth grade and built an "adder/subtractor machine" to calculate binary arithmetic in the eighth grade.

Mother:

Margaret Louise Wozniak

Margaret took great pride in all of her children’s accomplishments but especially liked telling stories of the time preceding Apple, when she hosted Steve Jobs and her son at home.

Spouse:

Janet Hill

Janet Hill was Apple’s Education Development Executive and long-term friend of Steve Wozniak. Janet Hill and Steve Wozniak kept their marriage secret. The couple married in August 2008 and the marriage held in a secret place where no friends or relatives invited for the marriage.

ex-spouse:

Alice Robertson

Wozniak and Alice first met through a phone conversation. Steve Wozniak was started Dial-a-Joke service. People call for that to hear a joke that is how Alice and Wozniak talked the first time and later they married in January of 1976. Woz’s commitment to Apple development led the distance from Alice and the couple also attended some counseling classes. However, the couple got divorced after 4 years of their marriage in 1980.

Alice got one-third of Wozniak's Apple stock in a divorce settlement which quickly grew into a fortune.

ex-spouse:

Candice Clark

After a divorce from Alice, Wozniak started dating with Candice Clark, who was Slalom Canoeist. Wozniak and Candice Clark both survived the Airplane crash and it was Candice who helped Woz to recover from his short-term memory loss due to Plane crash. She was also Apple’s Financial Analysis Staffer. Candi and Steve Wozniak first met during a water fight game at Apple and the couple started dating from then. The couple got married in 1981 and they have 3 children together, however, the couple got divorced in 1987.

ex-spouse:

Suzanne Mulkern

Steve Wozniak again married in 1990 to his childhood friend. He and Suzanne Mulkern were the schoolmates of his seventh grade. They met again in 1990 and married. Suzanne was a lawyer. By the time they met, Suzanne is the mother of three children, and Wozniak also has three children with his second wife. After 14 years of marriage, Wozniak filed for divorce and they separated in 2004.

ex-girlfriend:

Kathy Griffin

After seeing her stand-up performance in Saratoga, California, Wozniak began dating comedian Kathy Griffin. Together, they attended the 2007 Emmy Awards, and subsequently made many appearances on the fourth season of her show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.

Daughter:

Sara Nadine Wozniak

Son:

Stephen Gary Wozniak Jr.

Son:

Jesse John Wozniak

Brother:

Mark Wozniak

Sister:

Leslie Wozniak

Friend:

Steve Jobs

In partnership with his friend Steve Jobs, Wozniak invented the Apple I computer. The pair founded Apple Computers in 1976 with Ronald Wayne, releasing some of the first personal computers on the market.

References

• All About Steve Wozniak
• Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and the Personal Computer
  2006
• Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak: Geek Heroes Who Put the Personal in Computers
• Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation