Industry Hall Of Fame Introduction

Paul Allen Programming Pioneer

Tim Berners-Lee Developer Of The World Wide Web

Dan Bricklin Creator Of The Electronic Spreadsheet

Vint Cerf The Father Of The Internet

Ross Cooley Compaq's Channel Champion

Larry Ellison Database Dynamo

Bronson Ingram King Of Global Distribution Empire

Charles Wang Software Mangement Mogul

John Warnock Wizard Of Type

Steve Wozniak Apple's Engineering Genius

Development Teams Introduction

The Compaq Portable

The Intel 386SX

Lotus 1-2-3

Microsoft Windows

And while Jobs may still be gracing the covers of business magazines for his recent efforts to polish Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple's image and bottom line, Wozniak is out of the limelight and likes it that way.

Wozniak claims "the notoriety, the fame, made it hard for me to be the engineer and person that had created all of this. I'm shy and afraid to ask questions about technologies and products at shows, for example, because of the way people think of me as much more than just an engineer asking the questions."

But Wozniak is hardly just an engineer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest engineers of his generation. He has accomplished a feat unlikely to be repeated--he is the only person ever to design both the hardware and the software for a platform that became a huge commercial success.

By contrast, the original Windows 1.0 development team had two dozen programmers. The current Windows development team--excluding various marketing and management types--has close to 1,000 programmers. And the hardware for those platforms was developed elsewhere.

The Apple II is considered by many industry watchers as one of the most important developments in computer history. It was the first time that the power of a computer was made available to individual users.

Wozniak's design of the original Apple system was brilliant because of its simplicity, said Bob Frankston, who did some of the software coding for VisiCalc, the electronic spreadsheet that transformed the Apple II into a business product.

"I give Steve Wozniak credit for what he didn't do," said Frankston, a veteran programmer who has worked for Lotus Development Corp. and Microsoft Corp. "One problem when you start to [create products] for the commercial marketplace is you err on the side of overengineering vs. high value."

Wozniak seems to approach all aspects of his life differently. He dropped out of U.C. Berkeley in his senior year to earn money, returning to earn his undergraduate engineering degree even after he achieved fame and fortune at Apple.

Wozniak continued to work as an engineer designing calculators at Hewlett-Packard Co. while simultaneously developing the Apple II. He enjoyed working at HP and had to be prodded by Jobs to leave and start Apple.

He cared little about success and monetary compensation. Wozniak was simply doing what he loved. He calls designing computers his life's passion.

During high school, Wozniak, clearly a technical prodigy, had designed about 50 computers--but only on paper--and had his ham radio license at 11. "My life was fun electronics projects. I was motivated by any chance I got to build things of my own design," he said.

He claims he got little feedback about engineering and programming from pal Jobs but relied on his own ideas and things happening elsewhere in the industry to create the Apple II. He also wrote the Basic programming language for the computer.

Jobs took care of the nuts and bolts, such as securing financial backing, arranging manufacturing, scamming for parts, finding housing, recruiting employees, getting the plastic casing designed and cranking the marketing machine into full gear.

Wozniak admits to designing the Apple II for himself and his engineer buddies but said he hoped that it would be well-received. "I envisioned the project as a minor commercial success because back then the first computers were mostly designs and chips on a board, and I knew how superior ours was compared to any others," Wozniak said. "I did not think that personal computers would become so huge as to lead to a start-up company being worth $500- million in five years."

After that kind of growth, Wozniak lost interest in running a company or managing people. And as employee No. 1 at Apple, Wozniak still receives an annual $12,000 paycheck.

Even though Wozniak has long been out of Apple, he is hardly forgotten. When he speaks in public--at such events as the semi-annual Macworld trade show or any number of education conferences across the country--it is not unusual for him to get standing ovations that often last in excess of five minutes.

The man who constantly downplays his long list of amazing accomplishments eagerly boasts to confidants of his prowess at the game of Tetris. "He claims to be the world's greatest Tetris player," one source said.

Several of his loyal friends said Wozniak, who is extremely proud of his Polish heritage, has referred to himself as the "second most famous Pole after Marie Curie."

Surprisingly, Apple does not top the list of Wozniak's greatest accomplishments. He lists them as: "Having children of my own. Closely followed by the U.S. Festivals, the Apple II, the floppy drive for the Apple II, Dial-a-Joke, my Core remote control."

After leaving Apple, Wozniak created Core--a universal remote control device.

Married three times, Wozniak lost close to half of the $150 million to $200 million he made at Apple in his first divorce. He lost $25 million more on two U.S. Festivals--the failed music concerts that teamed him with famed Bay area rock promoter Bill Graham.

Having wealth has allowed Wozniak to pursue things that are interesting and enjoyable to him.

"He is the happiest millionaire I know--probably because he is out of the business," said Rick Doherty, president of Envisioneering, a Seaford, N.Y., consulting firm, and a close friend of Wozniak's for more than 15 years.

Now Wozniak's business is teaching. Since 1990 Wozniak has been teaching elementary and junior-high-school students in the Los Gatos school district about computers.

Wozniak claims he has always been good at tutoring and explaining things. When he was in sixth grade, his father, who was an engineer at Lockheed, asked him what he wanted to be. "I was already quite advanced in electronics so I said, 'An engineer, like yourself, but secondly, I would want to be a fifth grade teacher.' "

In college, Wozniak was inspired by a psychology student friend talking about the development of a child's mind. "I decided that I wanted to give a lot of myself to helping young people's minds develop."

Wozniak even recalls a time just before Apple started when he and Jobs had some fun entertaining kids. "Steve Jobs needed money and found [us] a job at a local mall dressing up as the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit for young kids there."

While it may be hard to picture the poised Jobs in such a costume, Wozniak's easygoing, fun demeanor makes it easy to imagine him in his bunny suit.

Despite his fame and fortune, Wozniak's life has few of the trappings associated with money, fame and power.

"He has no jets--instead he has personally touched the lives of hundreds and hundreds of children and educators," Doherty said.

OK, so the guy drives a Hummer.