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Steve Jobs' search for his father

Steve Jobs' search for his father

By Nick Wingfield, New York Times | Updated: 6 June 2012 15:17 IST

Highlights

Audio recordings of Mr. Jobs describing a remarkable moment in his life: an accidental encounter with his biological father.

A Sunday night interview on "60 Minutes" with Steve Jobs's biographer Walter Isaacson included audio recordings of Mr. Jobs describing a remarkable moment in his life: an accidental encounter with his biological father.

The clip was one of several Mr. Isaacson shared with "60 Minutes" of the many recordings he compiled from interviews with the late Apple chief executive officer for his book, which goes on sale Monday. One of the recordings was related to the search by Mr. Jobs for his biological mother in the mid-1980s. Eventually, Mr. Jobs found Joanne Simpson, who had given him up for adoption when he was an infant, in Los Angeles. She revealed to Mr. Jobs that he had a biological sister, a novelist in New York, Mona Simpson.

As described in the book, Mr. Jobs developed a close relationship with his sister that lasted until his death. However, he didn't share Ms. Simpson's desire to track down their biological father, a Syrian-American, Abdulfattah Jandali, who had abandoned Ms. Simpson and her mother when the novelist was a child. Ms. Simpson found Mr. Jandali working in a restaurant in Sacramento, but her brother asked her not to mention Mr. Jobs's identity to his father.

"I learned little bit about him and I didn't like what I learned," Mr. Jobs said in the recording that aired on "60 Minutes."

In the book, Mr. Isaacson elaborates on Mr. Jobs's refusal to see his father, quoting him saying he was most bothered by Mr. Jandali's abandonment of his sister.

But in a strange twist, it turned out that Mr. Jandali and Mr. Jobs had met years earlier. When Ms. Simpson met him, Mr. Jandali told her that he used to run a restaurant in Silicon Valley that attracted many high-profile people, including Steve Jobs and that the Apple executive was a "great tipper."

In a recording that "60 Minutes" aired, Mr. Jobs said he remembered being in that restaurant a couple of times and meeting a manager there who was from Syria. "I shook his hand and he shook my hand and that's all," Mr. Jobs said.

The two men never spoke again. Not until 2006, did Mr. Jandali learn that his son was Apple's co-founder, Mr. Isaacon reports in the book.

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