Steve Wozniak—American Inventor

Steve Wozniak is an American inventor, programmer, electronics engineer, and co-founder of Apple Inc. He has worked with Steve Jobs in the development of the first personal computers. Together they have pioneered the revolution of personal computers in the 1970s and 1980s. He earned the nickname “The Woz,” a short version of “Wheels of Zeus,” his own established company. It can also be for “Wisdom of Woz” or “The Wonderful Wizard of Woz” among other nicknames that he has. Having the same name as Steve Jobs, he is also often referred to as “The Second Steve.”

His expertise and intelligence were the keys to the development of Apple I and Apple II. The Apple II was the first successful microcomputer launched to the masses in 1977. He was the brains of the project while Steve Jobs monitored the development and its marketing. Meanwhile, it was Rod Holt who has worked on its power supply. Aside from that, Steve Wozniak had also created a blue box that made him famous in the phreaking community as “Berkeley Blue.”

He appeared in different films, documentaries, and television shows. At some point in 2009, he joined the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff but was eliminated in the fourth week in the mid-season double elimination.

Early Life and Family

He was born Stephan Gary Wozniak on August 11, 1950, but was originally named Stephen. He uses the nickname Steve when introducing himself. He comes from a Polish and Swiss-German family that emigrated to the United States where he grew up. His hometown is in San Jose, California, where he spent most of his years growing up. A street in the city was named “Woz Way” as his namesake. His love for technology and his motivation in starting Apple Inc. was the movie Star Trek.

In his years in college, Steve has had multiple experiences that can be credited to his success. His first attempt in completing his degree is at the University of Colorado Boulder. However, he was expelled during his first year for hacking into the computer system of the university. He moved back to the Bay Area and enrolled at the De Anza College. It was at this time that he developed the “Cream Soda” computer with Bill Fernandez. In 1971, he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, before his employment at Hewlett-Packard as a calculator program designer where he met Steve Jobs, his partner in developing the soon-to-be Apple.

Personal Life

He currently lives in Los Gatos in California where he continues his ventures in business and technology. He is also a Freemason, though not having faith in a supreme after marrying Alice Robertson who was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. He was initiated in 1979 at Charity Lodge No. 362 in now Mt. Moriah Lodge No. 292 in Los Gatos as a third-degree Freemason. Nevertheless, he still calls himself agnostic.

Steve is also a very fond of video games. His favorite is Tetris by Nintendo Power in which he has submitted high scores in the 1990s. When the gaming company would not print his scores anymore, he reversed his name into “Evets Kainzow” as an alternative. Despite his intelligence, Steve suffers from prosopagnosia, a cognitive disorder that impairs someone’s ability to perceive familiar faces, even his own.

In 2014, he officially became an Australian citizen after applying for a visa. He said, “I have now got a visa for dis­tinguished people—or something like that—it took a long time and cost some money, but we have done it for our entire family, so we can all reside here.” He has been wanting to become an Australian for some time. He added in his statement, “I want to be a distinguished part of this country and some day I may say I lived and died an Australian, and that would be a really nice thing to be able to say. No country is perfect, but I like a lot of things about this place.”

His plan is to buy a home in Sydney while he is still US-based for his work. However, he wants to stay in Tasmania and get a property there in time for his retirement. He gladly told people in an interview that “The Premier of Tasmania actually called us at our home and offered to show us around if we were ever there. Hopefully, in the next few days, we can get there, as I really like the idea of cooler weather.”

Plane Crash

While on board the Beechcraft Bonanza A36TC on February 07, 1981, Steve, with his then-fiance Candice Clark, his brother, and his brother’s girlfriend, crash landed after taking off from Sky Park Airport. He was piloting the airport as it took off from the runway in Scotts Valley, California. It had a problem while gaining altitude and soon bounced on the runway before hitting two fences and finally hitting the embankment. All passengers were injured but were treated right away.

Steve suffered anterograde amnesia for five weeks and has lost his memory of the crash and everything after his release. He also did not remember his name in the hospital. On top of that, he lost a tooth and had several injuries in the face and in the head. When accounting the events, Steve would say that it was his Apple II computer games that helped his memory recover fast. According to the report of the National Transportation Safety Board, it was the lack of experience of the pilot (Steve) and the premature liftoff that might have caused the crash. He temporarily left Apple after the accident.