The technology industry’s leading lights gathered Sunday evening to bid farewell to one who shone perhaps the brightest.
Steve Jobs — the former Apple CEO who revolutionized computing, telephones, animated films and the music industry — was honored amid ultra-tight security by mourners including Google chief executive Larry Page, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former Vice President Al Gore, an Apple board member.
The private event was held at Stanford University’s Memorial Church.
Apple and Stanford officials had been equally tight-lipped leading up to the event, and security Sunday afternoon was nothing less than extraordinary. Dozens of dark-suited men with ear pieces guarded the university’s Cantor Art Center, where catering trucks and café tables awaited mourners for a post-service reception, and walled off the rear entrance to the church, which was built at the turn of the last century by Jane Stanford to mourn the death of her husband, Leland.
“This is security like you’d see for a presidential visit — maybe tighter,” said retired San Mateo County Superior Court Judge John Runde, who had come to campus for his regular Sunday evening stroll with his wife, Joyce. They found themselves stymied when, about 90 minutes prior to the start of the 6:30 p.m. memorial, officials cleared out the university’s sandstone Main Quad, which had been filled with skateboarding students and camera-toting gawkers.
Waves of the curious were ushered out past the grand Palm Drive, which had already been closed to unauthorized vehicles. Meanwhile, shuttle buses, a small fleet of dark stretch SUVs and golf carts trucked in for the occasion waited to whisk the luminaries from the church to the reception.
As dark-suited, stone-faced guests began arriving, Stanford’s police chief, Laura Wilson, personally stood watch at the front entrance to the university quad.
Friends of Jobs contacted prior to the proceedings were loathe to comment about the event — either due to the extraordinary security measures or simply because it was a day for the technology industry to mourn its own. Jobs died Oct. 5 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Among those seen entering the 1,200-seat church Sunday were Ron Conway, tech’s most prominent angel investor; Silicon Valley super-lawyer Larry Sonsini, who arrived with Intuit chairman and longtime Jobs confidante Bill Campbell; and Adobe co-founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock. Their presence was intriguing given that Jobs had waged an open battle with Adobe in recent years and threatened the San Jose software company’s future by decreeing some Apple products would no longer support Adobe’s Flash graphics software.
There were big names from non-tech walks of life as well, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whom Jobs had supported with a six-figure campaign donation, and actor Tim Allen, who voiced the character Buzz Lightyear in three “Toy Story” movies created by Jobs’ side company, Pixar Animation Studios.
Even celebrity wattage, however, was not enough to slip the security cordon. Google’s Page and his wife spent several uncomfortable minutes being politely questioned by a Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy after having apparently failed to bring their invitations to the event.
As Page spoke to the deputy, a thrilled onlooker stood three feet away and snapped photos on a pocket camera.
Contact Peter Delevett at 408-271-3638. Follow him at http://twitter.com/mercwiretap.
