Steve Wozniak, known to everyone as “Woz,” is an American inventor and computer engineer who co-founded Apple Computer with Steve Jobs. While Jobs was the business mind behind Apple, Wozniak was the technical genius who actually designed and built the company’s first computers. His work on the Apple II helped launch the personal computer revolution.
Stephen Gary Wozniak was born on August 11, 1950, in San Jose, California. His father, Jerry Wozniak, was an engineer at Lockheed, a company that built rockets and spacecraft. Growing up in what would later become known as Silicon Valley, young Steve was surrounded by technology from an early age. He became fascinated with electronics in fourth grade and built his first computer at just 13 years old. At Homestead High School in Cupertino, he won awards for being the best math student and scored a perfect 800 on his math SAT.
When Wozniak was 19, a mutual friend introduced him to 14-year-old Steve Jobs. Despite the five-year age difference, the two Steves bonded over their shared love of electronics and pranks. Together, they built “blue boxes,” electronic devices that could trick the phone system into making free long-distance calls. While they eventually stopped making blue boxes, the experience taught them they could build electronics and sell them, planting the seed for what would become Apple Computer.
In 1976, Wozniak designed the Apple I computer in his spare time while working at Hewlett-Packard. When Jobs saw it, he convinced Woz they should start a company and sell it. They founded Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, and built the first Apple I computers in the Jobs family garage in Los Altos, California. The Apple I was impressive, but Wozniak’s real masterpiece was the Apple II, released in 1977. It was one of the first personal computers that could display color graphics, and it came in a sleek plastic case instead of bare circuit boards. The Apple II became a huge hit, especially in schools, and sold millions of units over the next several years.
In 1981, Wozniak was seriously injured in a small plane crash and took time away from Apple. He returned briefly but eventually left the company in 1985 to pursue other interests. He founded a company called CL 9 that created the first programmable universal remote control in 1987. He also organized the US Festival in 1982 and 1983, a massive music and technology festival that brought together hundreds of thousands of people.
One of Wozniak’s lifelong dreams was to teach, and he made that dream come true by volunteering to teach computer classes to children from fifth through ninth grade. He adopted the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on learning and donating state-of-the-art technology equipment. Woz also helped found the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which protects people’s rights on the internet, and he was a founding sponsor of the Tech Museum and the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose.
Steve Wozniak was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000 for his work on the Apple II. He received the National Medal of Technology from the President of the United States in 1985, the highest honor for technological achievement in the country. Today, Woz travels the world giving talks about technology and education, reminding young engineers that the best inventions come from building things you love.
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