Steve Jobs had a remarkable life. An adopted child (his biological sister, incredibly, is the novelist Mona Simpson), college drop-out and Arab American, he created perhaps the greatest comeback story in American corporate history. Before he became a visionary whose fine taste and ruthless perfectionism helped define the way people and technology interact, Jobs was a middle class kid who, worried about squandering his adoptive parents’ life savings, left college to follow his interests and his instincts.

There will be many stories today assessing his contribution to American culture, but I think his own thoughts on death, “the single best invention,” and the life fully lived might be worth hearing today. This is his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University.

 

Kevin Clarke is America’s chief correspondent and the author of Oscar Romero: Love Must Win Out (Liturgical Press).