Steve Jobs’s sister, Mona Simpson, novelist and a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, delivered the eulogy for her brother.
Simpson delivered the eulogy on October 16 at his memorial service at the Memorial Church of Stanford University—The eulogy was later published by the New York Times.
“Even as a feminist, my whole life I’d been waiting for a man to love, who could love me. For decades, I’d thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man and he was my brother,” Simpson said.
Simpson went on to describe Steve’s life, from when he met his wife to when he died.
“Steve was like a girl in the amount of time he spent talking about love. Love was his supreme virtue, his god of gods. He tracked and worried about the romantic lives of the people working with him,” said Simpson, who remembered the day he met his wife. He said, “There’s this beautiful woman and she’s really smart and she has this dog and I’m going to marry her.”
Simpson went on to speak about his children,” When Reed was born, he began gushing and never stopped. He was a physical dad, with each of his children. He fretted over Lisa’s boyfriends and Erin’s travel and skirt lengths and Eve’s safety around the horses she adored.”
“His abiding love for Laurene sustained him. He believed that love happened all the time, everywhere. In that most important way, Steve was never ironic, never cynical, never pessimistic. I try to learn from that, still,” Simpson said of Jobs and that “He treasured happiness.”
Following a delightful description of Jobs’ life, she began talking about his death and how he was hanging on for his family.
” I realized during that terrifying time that Steve was not enduring the pain for himself. He set destinations: his son Reed’s graduation from high school, his daughter Erin’s trip to Kyoto, the launching of a boat he was building on which he planned to take his family around the world and where he hoped he and Laurene would someday retire,” Simpson said.
“Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them,” said Simpson. “Steve’s final words were: OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”
Click to read the entire eulogy for Steve Jobs: A Sister’s Eulogy For Steve Jobs.
The Apple Chairman, co-founder and former CEO, died Wednesday October 5, at the age of 56, after a long battle with cancer.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve,” Apple Inc. said in a statement.
Jobs had just resigned as Apple’s CEO in August but his long battle with cancer began in 2003, when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He underwent a liver transplant in 2009, after taking a leave of absence, which would become the first of three.
