Background
Parents
Jobs's adoptive father, Paul Reinhold Jobs (1922–1993), grew up in a Calvinist household,[12] the son of an "alcoholic and sometimes abusive" father.[2] The family lived on a farm in Germantown, Wisconsin.[2][12] Paul, ostensibly bearing a resemblance to James Dean, had tattoos, dropped out of high school, and traveled around the midwest for several years during the 1930s looking for work.[2][12] He eventually joined the United States Coast Guard as an engine-room machinist.[12] After World War II, Paul Jobs decided to leave the Coast Guard when it docked in San Francisco.[12] He made a bet that he would find his wife in San Francisco and promptly went on a blind date with Clara Hagopian (1924–1986). They were engaged ten days later and married in 1946.[2] Clara, the daughter of Armenian immigrants, grew up in San Francisco and had been married before, but her husband had been killed in the war. After a series of moves, Paul and Clara settled in San Francisco's Sunset District in 1952.[2] As a hobby, Paul Jobs rebuilt cars, but as a career he was a "repo man", which suited his "aggressive, tough personality."[12] Meanwhile, their attempts to start a family were halted after Clara had an ectopic pregnancy, leading them to explore adoption in 1955.[2]
Steve Jobs's biological father, Abdulfattah "John" Jandali (b. 1931), was born into a Muslim household and grew up in Homs, Syria.[13] Jandali is the son of a self-made millionaire who did not go to college and a mother who was a traditional housewife.[13] While an undergraduate at the American University of Beirut, he was a student activist and spent time in jail for his political activities.[13] Although Jandali initially wanted to study law, he eventually decided to study economics and political science.[13] He pursued a PhD in the latter subject at the University of Wisconsin, where he met Joanne Carole Schieble, a Catholic of Swiss and German descent, who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin.[2][13][14] As a doctoral candidate, Jandali was a teaching assistant for a course Schieble was taking, although both were the same age.[15] Mona Simpson (Jobs's biological sister), notes that her maternal grandparents were not happy that their daughter was dating Jandali: "it wasn't that he was Middle-Eastern so much as that he was a Muslim. But there are a lot of Arabs in Michigan and Wisconsin. So it's not that unusual."[15] Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs's official biographer, additionally states that Schieble's father "threatened to cut Joanne off completely" if she continued the relationship.[2]
Steve Jobs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parents
Jobs's adoptive father, Paul Reinhold Jobs (1922–1993), grew up in a Calvinist household,[12] the son of an "alcoholic and sometimes abusive" father.[2] The family lived on a farm in Germantown, Wisconsin.[2][12] Paul, ostensibly bearing a resemblance to James Dean, had tattoos, dropped out of high school, and traveled around the midwest for several years during the 1930s looking for work.[2][12] He eventually joined the United States Coast Guard as an engine-room machinist.[12] After World War II, Paul Jobs decided to leave the Coast Guard when it docked in San Francisco.[12] He made a bet that he would find his wife in San Francisco and promptly went on a blind date with Clara Hagopian (1924–1986). They were engaged ten days later and married in 1946.[2] Clara, the daughter of Armenian immigrants, grew up in San Francisco and had been married before, but her husband had been killed in the war. After a series of moves, Paul and Clara settled in San Francisco's Sunset District in 1952.[2] As a hobby, Paul Jobs rebuilt cars, but as a career he was a "repo man", which suited his "aggressive, tough personality."[12] Meanwhile, their attempts to start a family were halted after Clara had an ectopic pregnancy, leading them to explore adoption in 1955.[2]
Steve Jobs's biological father, Abdulfattah "John" Jandali (b. 1931), was born into a Muslim household and grew up in Homs, Syria.[13] Jandali is the son of a self-made millionaire who did not go to college and a mother who was a traditional housewife.[13] While an undergraduate at the American University of Beirut, he was a student activist and spent time in jail for his political activities.[13] Although Jandali initially wanted to study law, he eventually decided to study economics and political science.[13] He pursued a PhD in the latter subject at the University of Wisconsin, where he met Joanne Carole Schieble, a Catholic of Swiss and German descent, who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin.[2][13][14] As a doctoral candidate, Jandali was a teaching assistant for a course Schieble was taking, although both were the same age.[15] Mona Simpson (Jobs's biological sister), notes that her maternal grandparents were not happy that their daughter was dating Jandali: "it wasn't that he was Middle-Eastern so much as that he was a Muslim. But there are a lot of Arabs in Michigan and Wisconsin. So it's not that unusual."[15] Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs's official biographer, additionally states that Schieble's father "threatened to cut Joanne off completely" if she continued the relationship.[2]
Steve Jobs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
