RIP, Steve Jobs
Apple’s founder and CEO died today.
Jobs was a great man. A great American. He personified in the late 20th century the legends of the early 20th century. And he brought to us the kind of technological innovation our society has come to live for.
He’ll go down in history with the great figures in the history of market commerce – Edison, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie, Walton.
But we can offer no better eulogy for Jobs than the one he unwittingly delivered for himself in 2005, at Palo Alto, California, when he was asked to give the commencement address at Stanford. Jobs spoke of death that day – he had faced it thanks to a bout with pancreatic cancer which began a sad medical odyssey leading to today’s unfortunate conclusion. But in addressing death, he also spoke of life, and more importantly, living.
His message outlives its narrator, as do all his works. Such is the measure of greatness. And Jobs was great.
