Stephen Wozniak, born in 1950, American computer designer, born in California and educated at the University of California at Berkeley. After dropping out of college, Wozniak went to work for Hewlett-Packard, and in his spare time he was instrumental in working with other young computer enthusiasts in Palo Alto at the Homebrew Computer Club. Steven Jobs, also of Hewlett-Packard, began attending meetings of the club in 1975 and persuaded Wozniak to work with him on a marketable computer design. Together they designed and built a prototype of the Apple I, a preassembled computer circuit board, in Jobs's parents' garage. A local electronics equipment retailer placed an order for 25 of the machines, and Wozniak and Jobs were in business. Jobs arranged for credit from suppliers, and Wozniak quit his job to become vice president in charge of research and development for the new venture. The Apple Computer Company was founded on April 1, 1976. Its first machine, the Apple I, sold 600 units, chiefly to electronics enthusiasts and hobbyists. The partners soon introduced the Apple II, which kept much of the simplicity and compactness of the earlier model but was more suited to the general user. Other models followed, as did printers and software. The company was incorporated in 1977 and went public in 1980. Following a plane crash in early 1981, Wozniak left Apple but returned in 1983 and remained at the company until 1985, when he resigned to start a new company to make wireless remote control devices for televisions and home appliances. The company, CL-9, Inc., closed at the end of 1989. In 1982 and 1983 Wozniak personally funded the US Festival, a combination rock concert and technology fair with the goal of generating a spirit of world cooperation. Held in the San Bernardino Mountains, east of Los Angeles, the two festivals cost Wozniak more than $10 million. After leaving Apple, Wozniak obtained his bachelor's degree in computer science and electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and taught as a volunteer.
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