Chapter 5: Steve’s Last Days

On August 24, 2011, Steve Jobs announced via written letter to the Apple Board of Directors his resignation as CEO of the company he loved and - some maintain - lived for.

"To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community," Jobs began his salutation, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

Jobs' departure was the unfortunate culmination of a long, agonizing journey that began in 2004.

Sometime during the summer of that year, Steve Jobs informed his colleagues at Apple that a cancerous tumor had been detected in his pancreas. While the survival rate of individuals with pancreatic cancer is generally grim, Jobs maintained that he had a less aggressive form of the disease known as an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.

For the next seven years, Jobs remained the Chief Executive Officer of Apple, although several medical leaves of absence would occur. Largely unfazed by his health woes, throughout the first decade of the 21^st century, Jobs remained an enthusiastic pitchman for the groundbreaking products that have since come to define the Cupertino, California-based company.

But it was apparent by mid-2011, shortly after Jobs delivered the opening keynote address at Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference, that the visionary leader's health had begun deteriorating precipitously.

Twelve weeks after Jobs' final stage appearance for Apple to introduce iOS 5, Tim Cook - per Jobs' recommendation and established corporate succession plan - was named the new CEO of Apple.

The week of Jobs' resignation, photos of the gaunt and sickly former chief executive surfaced on the Internet, sparking rumors of his imminent death. Sources inside Apple quickly responded to the speculation by acknowledging that Jobs had continued to work long hours - if not full days - up until August 24th, the date of his resignation.

"A few weeks ago, I visited Jobs for the last time in his Palo Alto, California home," writes official Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson in his October 7, 2011 Time magazine essay on the life and legacy of Steve Jobs.

"He had moved to a downstairs bedroom because he was too weak to go up and down stairs. He was curled up in some pain, but his mind was still sharp and his humor vibrant," Isaacson revealed. "We talked about his childhood, and he gave me some pictures of his father and family to use in my biography. As a writer, I was used to being detached, but I was hit by a wave of sadness as I tried to say goodbye.

In order to mask my emotion, I asked the one question that was still puzzling me: Why had he been so eager, during close to 50 interviews and conversations over the course of two years, to open up so much for a book when he was usually so private? 'I wanted my kids to know me,' he said. 'I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.'”

Living Like There's No Tomorrow

Throughout his career, Steve Jobs was fond of advising his friends and colleagues to work like there was no tomorrow. After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004, Jobs would make a particularly emphatic example out of his own words.

Among the last people to meet privately with Steve Jobs was Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. Wozniak was instrumental in creating the Apple I and Apple II computers, two developments considered integral to the subsequent microcomputer revolution.

During an interview with the Huffington Post, Wozniak recalled his last meeting with his old friend and colleague Steve Jobs during the summer of 2011. According to Wozniak, Jobs looked ill and struggled to communicate with the former vigor for which he was known.

“Steve, the last few times he talked to me, was having all these strong reflections of those early days and how much they meant and how much fun they were,” Wozniak later revealed to Bloomberg. “He would even say things like, ‘Did you ever think this would happen?’ ‘Look how great, big Apple got as a technology company.’ He was really getting excited about these things. He was kind of like his normal, young self again.’’

But Wozniak admitted being concerned for his old friend’s life following their last telephone conversation.

‘‘He sounded a little weak in the character and the voice and the motivation,” Wozniak said. “I was a little bit scared on the phone. He didn’t sound as strong as he did the conversation before.”

Wozniak claims that Jobs revealed to him as early as 1985 that he had "a feeling he would die before the age of 40." In light of that feeling, Wozniak asserts, "a lot of his life was focused on trying to get things done quickly."