Thank You, Mr. Jobs

In 1985, I was at THAT Super Bowl. I WON tickets to it on a local West Palm Beach radio station. I saw the Ridley Scott Apple commercial at that Super Bowl and I still have my Apple seat cushion.

In 1987, two years later, I owned my first Mac, an SE. It still boots up and greets me today! I published three magazines on that little Macintosh and never ever looked at an ordinary, boring PC.

Since 1987, I’ve earned my living as a graphic designer, writer, and publisher on Steve Jobs' products. Through the years, Apple has kept me young and thirsty for the next world-transforming objet d technologie, the next new operating system, and the next ground-breaking software. Finally, I had an Apple Store in my backyard.

I've owned a Performa, 8100, G3, G4, and G5, an iPod, several iPhones, two MacBook Airs, and Apple TV. This original message was emailed wirelessly in 2011 from my almost one-year-old MacBook Pro 17, the one I'm editing this six-year-old message on. Apple products were not only intuitive to use and master, they were works of art while being state-of-the-art.

I wrote this tribute on Oct. 6, 2011. Steve Jobs died in Palo Alto on October 5, 2011, after battling pancreatic cancer for nearly a decade. He was 56 years old.

Thank you, Steve, for your vision, your uncanny ability to read the future, and change the world. You impacted my life and, in the process, you became one of the best friends I never met.

You prospered, but did not live long enough. You should have had a very long life. The Universe must have decided It needed a Master Imaginator to translate Its secrets.

As Buzz Lightyear said, "To Infinity and Beyond." The world will miss your light.

Godspeed!