Steve Jobs, who was on sick leave with an undisclosed illness since the beginning of this year, announced his resignation as technology giant Apple’s chief executive. He will be replaced by Tim Cook, the company’s chief operating officer.

His note about his resignation to the Apple board and the public was brief:

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come. I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.”

During his lifetime so far, 56 years, his achievements have been stunning. He turned a company, Apple, which he had founded, from a struggling firm valued at $9 per share a decade ago, to the world’s most valuable company today, just tipping Exxon Mobil, at nearly $400 per share. He was personally involved in the creation and bringing onto the market of Macintosh, iPod, IPhone, iTunes, iMovie and iPad.

This article focuses on his medical history.

  • Mid-2004 – Steve Jobs announced that he had a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. Pancreatic cancer usually has a poor prognosis; it is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in the USA, Europe and much of the rest of the world. The 1-year survival rate (average) is 25%, and 6% for 5 years. Pancreatic cancer has one of the highest fatality rates of all cancers.

    However, Jobs said his tumor was a rare, considerably less aggressive form, known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. At first, he resisted undergoing traditional therapies and went on a special diet in an attempt to treat the disease.

  • July 2004 – Jobs underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy – the tumor surgically removed, known as a Whipple procedure. The operation appeared to be a success. He did not have to undergo radiotherapy or chemotherapy. While he was away from work, head of global sales and operations in the company, Tim Cook, ran Apple.
  • 2005 – He commenced a speech to students at Stanford University in which he explained that for him, the frailty of life has been a driving force behind his approach to business. He said:

    Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important thing I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

  • August 2006 – there was some speculation that there might be something wrong with his health when he delivered a speech at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. He was described by the media as “thin, almost gaunt”, and his presentation was quoted as being “listless”. Large parts of his keynote were done by other presenters. However, according to media sources that interviewed conference delegates who met Jobs in person, he looked fine. A spokesperson for the company said “Steve’s health is robust.”
  • August 2008 – again at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, concerns about his health returned. The media was told that he was on antibiotics and had a “common bug”. Some people suggested that the Whipple procedure had affected him.

    Questions became more insistent about his health. While some insisted it was a private matter, others stressed that shareholders had a right to know, given the man’s hands-on approach to the running of Apple.

    A New York Times journalist, based on an unofficial telephone conversation with Jobs, wrote “..while his health issues have amounted to a good deal more than ‘a common bug,’ they weren’t life-threatening and he doesn’t have a recurrence of cancer.”

  • August 2008 – Bloomberg published a 2,500-word obituary of Jobs in its corporate news service by mistake; details on his age and cause of death were left blank. Although the mistake was swiftly corrected, rumors about his health spread rapidly. Publishers often have stockpiles of half-filled obituaries on people who appear to have a high risk of dying soon. Jobs said that reports on his health were greatly exaggerated.
  • September 2008 – Jobs started a presentation with a slide that simply read “110/70”, referring to his blood pressure (a very good reading). He then said that is all he would mention about his health.
  • December 2008 – it was announced that Phil Schiller, Apple’s vice-president of marketing, would deliver the final keynote address at the Macworld Conference and Expo 2009. Everyone had expected Steve Jobs to be the presenter. This made people wonder about his health again.
  • January 2009 – Jobs informed through Apple.com that he had had a hormone imbalance for a number of months that was causing him to lose weight. Ten days later Jobs announced to Macworld attendees:

    “I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show (MacWorld). As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my number one priority. Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause – a hormone imbalance that has been ‘robbing’ me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward.”

    Hormonal imbalance is a possible side-effect of pancreatic cancer. Weight loss is common. Pancreatic cancer starts off in the pancreas, which produces various hormones, including insulin. Jobs’ rare cancer originated in the pancreatic cells that produce hormones.

    Jobs announced that he was taking a six-month leave of absence so that he could deal with health matters. Tim Cook became CEO of Apple, while Jobs continued to be involved with major strategic decisions.

  • April 2009 – Jobs had a liver transplant. Doctors at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee, where the procedure was carried out, said his prognosis was excellent. A few months later he returned to work.
  • January, 2011 – Jobs announced in a letter to Apple staff that he was taking a leave of absence so that he could focus on his health. Tim Cook was placed to run the company while Jobs said he would remain involved in major strategic decisions.

    According to a New York Times article, Jobs had recently slowed his activities in the company. The article added that he had “appeared increasingly emaciated”.

    Leander Kahney, author of Inside Steve’s Brain and founder of the Cult of Mac blog, said “It’s a big shock and will serve as a big blow to his psyche because he loves Apple so much. Steve Jobs is the heart and soul of the company.”

  • March and June 2011 – Even though he was on sick leave, Jobs made a speech at the iPad2 launch, and the introduction of iCloud at the WWDC. He also made a speech before the Cupertino city council in June 2011.
  • August 2011 – Jobs resigns as chief executive of Apple and is replaced by chief operating officer Tim Cook. Jobs said he could “no longer meet his chief executive’s duties and expectations”.

Steve Jobs was born on 24th February, 1955, in San Francisco, California. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.

He attended Cupertino Junior High School and Homestead High School. He was a frequent attendee at Hewlett-Packard Company lectures. He worked with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee at Hewlett-Packard.

Jobs enrolled in Reed College, Portland, Oregon. He dropped out after one semester, but carried on auditing classes at reed.

He returned to California in 1974 and started going regularly to the Homebrew Computer club with Wozniak. He worked as a technician at video-game maker Atari. His aim was to save up enough money to spend some time at a spiritual retreat in India.

He went to India with Daniel Kottke, an ex-Reed College classmate. Kottke eventually became Apple’s first employee. He came back a Buddhist, with shaven head wearing traditional Indian attire. He experimented with LSD, calling this period in his life “One of the two or three most important things I had done in my life.”

He went back to work for Atari, with the task of making a circuit board for Breakout, a game. Atari offered him a $100 bonus for each chip that could be eliminated. Jobs suggested to Wozniak to split the bonus 50/50 if Wozniak could work on this. They managed to eliminate 50 chips – however, the design was so tight that it was not possible to reproduce on an assembly line. Jobs only got $700 bonus from Atari, rather than the $5,000 for 50 chips.

In 1976 he teamed up with Steve Wozniak to sell personal computers they had assembled in Jobs’ garage. Jobs says that was where Apple Computers started.

Jobs became a millionaire by the time he was 30 years old.

In 1985 he was forced out of Apple and set up the NeXT corporation. A decade later Apple bought NeXT and Jobs became CEO of Apple again. Following Jobs’ return to Apple, its fortunes improved dramatically.

Jobs also became CEO of animation company Pixar, which created such movies as Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. Pixar was bought out by the Walt Disney Company for $7.4 billion in 2006, making Jobs the largest individual shareholder of Disney shares.

Although Jobs’ official salary while chief executive of Apple was only $1 per year, he owns 5,426 Apple shares, and 138 Disney shares. In 2009, Forbes estimated his net wealth at $5.1 billion.

Written by Christian Nordqvist