want to die before telling the story of
his life.
Illegitimate Son
Joanne Schieble Simpson, daughter
of a rich and conservative German
businessman, Arthur Schieble, was
a student at the University of Wis-
consin when she first met Abdulfat-
tah Jandali who was an assistant lec-
turer at the same university. Jandali
belonged to a wealthy famous Syrian
family and his father owned oil refin-
eries in addition to many business
ventures. In the summer of 1954,
Joanne travelled with Abdulfattah
to Syria and they stayed in the city
of Homs for two months. They were
both 23 years old at that time. When
they went back to Wisconsin, she re-
alized that she was pregnant. Her fa-
ther refused to allow her to marry Ab-
dulfattah and threatened to deprive
her from heritance and abandon her.
At that time, abortion was not an op-
tion in a small religious society. In
Early 1955, Joanne had to go to San
Francisco, California. She went to a
doctor who used to take care of un-
married mothers till they have given
birth to their babies and then put the
babies up for adoption. Although
Joanne wanted her son to be adopt-
ed only by a college-graduate cou-
ple, on 24 February 1955 the baby
was given to Paul Jobs who dropped
out of school because he was fond of
mechanics. His wife, Clara, was an
accountant and was unable to have
children. 9 years after marriage, they
decided to adopt a baby and they
called him “Steve Paul Jobs”.
The Lost Father
For many weeks, Joanne refused
to sign on the final adoption papers,
but finally she signed them after they
promised her that they would ar-
range a saving account to support
Steve to attend college. In the same
year, Joanne’s father died, and she
married Abdulfattah who obtained
his PhD in International Politics the
following year. They had a baby girl
and they called her Mona. Despite
the love story behind their marriage,
Abdulfattah’s job as a manager of
an oil refinery in Homs, Syria, made
his wife seek divorce. In 1962 they
divorced and she re-married an
American, and Mona was given the
last name of her stepfather, Simp-
son. Mona Simpson is a famous au-
thor who wrote 5 novels, the most
popular of which is “The Lost Father”
which talks about her journey looking
for her father, Abdulfattah Jandali.
Steve Jobs knew from an early age
that he was adopted. “My parents
were very open with me about that,”
he recalled. This knowledge left
some scars in his character. “I think
his desire for complete control of
whatever he makes derives directly
from his personality and the fact that
he was abandoned at birth,” said one
longtime colleague, Del Yocam. “He
wants to control his environment,
and he sees the product as an ex-
tension of himself.”
One of the ironies in Steve’s life was
abandoning a child of his own. How-
ever, he eventually took responsibil-
ity for her. Chrisann Brennan, the
mother of that child, said that being
put up for adoption left Jobs “full of
broken glass,” and it helps to ex-
plain some of his behavior. “He who
is abandoned is an abandoner,” she
said
Steve used to get angry whenever
anyone referred to Paul and Clara
Jobs as his “adoptive” parents. “They
were my parents 1,000%,” he said.
When speaking about his biological
parents, on the other hand, he was
curt: “They were my sperm and egg
bank. That’s not harsh, it’s just the
way it was, a sperm bank thing, noth-
ing more.”
Mechanics and Cars
Steve took the interest in mechanics
and cars from his father, Paul, who
worked at CRT Finance as a “repo
man,” picking the locks of cars whose
owners hadn’t paid their loans. He
also bought, repaired, and sold some
of the cars to be able to support his
family especially after adopting a girl
whom they named Patty. Jobs re-
membered being impressed by his
father’s focus on craftsmanship. “I
thought my dad’s sense of design
was pretty good,” he said, “because
he knew how to build anything. If we
needed a cabinet, he would build it.
When he built our fence, he gave me
a hammer so I could work with him.”
Fifty years later the fence still sur-
rounds the back and side yards of the
house in Mountain View. He recalled
a lesson he learned from his father.
It was important, his father said, to
craft the backs of cabinets and fenc-
es properly, even though they were
hidden. “He loved doing things right.
He even cared about the look of the
parts you couldn’t see.”
Jobs learnt about electronic for the
first time in his father’s garage. He
said: “My dad did not have a deep
understanding of electronics, but
he’d encountered it a lot in auto-
mobiles and other things he would
fix. He showed me the rudiments of
electronics, and I got very interested
in that.
In the next edition :
• Jobs is dismissed from school
because of setting off an explosive
under the seat of his teacher
• He joins (HP) club at the age of 15
Issue 1
October
2013
21
