Steve Wozniak

August 11, 2012

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On this date in 1950, Stephen Wozniak was born in San Jose, Calif. Wozniak holds degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley. Wozniak, along with inventor Steve Jobs, founded the innovative Apple Computer Inc. in 1976. Wozniak helped to create the original Apple computers, Apple I and Apple II, which were some of the first personal computers invented. His simple, convenient designs have greatly influenced current personal computers.

In 1985, he was given the prestigious National Medal of Technology by President Ronald Reagan, and he has also received the 2001 Heinz Award for Technology, among numerous accomplishments. Wozniak is the founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights organization, and is a New York Times bestselling author for his autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon (2006). He has three children from his previous marriage with Candice Clark.

On a page on his website from 2000, Wozniak states: “I am also [along with fellow entrepreneurs Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds and Larry Ellison] atheist or agnostic (I don’t even know the difference). I’ve never been to church and prefer to think for myself.” Besides being a freethinker himself, Wozniak writes on his website that he “believes in encouraging free thinking and creativity for youngsters” (2009). Wozniak was awarded the 2011 Isaac Asimov Science Award from the American Humanist Association.

“I just felt that an intelligent person like myself could figure out good behaviors without going to a church and having to follow the thinking of a large group, all who follow it largely because they all do.”

— Steve Wozniak, www.woz.org, 2000

Compiled by Sabrina Gaylor (FFRF)