Father And Son: In Fact They Did Meet

The late Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple and technological magician of our times, was estranged from his father, as I wrote last week, and though the father emailed several times in the months before Jobs died of pancreatic cancer, it was widely reported that they never met. In fact, it seems they did meet, but without knowing it.

Jobs' father John Jandali had two children with Joanne Simpson: Jobs and his sister, novelist Mona Simpson. Jandali seems to have abandoned his ex-wife and the children (though Jobs was given up for adoption first). This abandonment colored Jobs' view of his father, such that he refused to meet him during his final months.

“I learned a little bit about him and I didn’t like what I learned,” Jobs said on an audio recording played on a “60 Minutes” segment yesterday.

But they did in fact meet. Mona Simpson tracked down her father some years ago, and Jandali told her that he once ran a restaurant in Silicon Valley, where many hi-tech company executives came to eat, "including Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was a great tipper."

From a NYTimes blog post, oddly titled 'Steve Jobs' search for his father':

In the recording, 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.