Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks—including death itself—at the university's 114th Commencement on Sunday in Stanford Stadium.
Wearing jeans and sandals under his black robe, Jobs delivered a keynote address that spanned his adoption at birth to his insights into mortality after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a year ago. In plainspoken terms, his address struck a balance between the obstacles he has encountered during his notably public life and the lessons he has gleaned—for example, from his high-profile ousting in 1985 from the computer company he helped start.
"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me," said Jobs, 50. "It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life."
The 2005 Commencement proceeded with its familiar mix of the goofy and the formal: Graduates attached plush animals to their caps and carried body-length flotation devices onto the field for the Wacky Walk. This traditional kickoff to the ceremony was once again a flurry of wild wigs, rock-star shades, feather boas and a few Speedo swim trunks.
Also seen were a procession of walking iPods, several balloon floats, spray-painted umbrellas and one group that unfurled a volleyball net and spontaneously started to play. The first ones on the field carried boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, while behind them a dance troupe in tutus and ape masks pranced around the track.
But calm was restored once the graduates took their seats and the Rev. Scotty McLennan, dean for religious life, delivered the opening invocation. President John Hennessy then welcomed the estimated 23,000 people in the stadium and, after a presentation of faculty, staff and student awards by Provost John Etchemendy, returned to the podium to introduce the keynote speaker.
Hennessy said Jobs embodied the university's spirit, its "willingness to be bold and strike out in new directions." Hennessy also touched on Jobs' reputation as an innovator, a visionary and an advocate for education who developed partnerships during Apple's earliest days to get computers into schools and communities.
Jobs began by noting that he dropped out of college, and that Sunday's ceremony was the closest he had ever gotten to a university graduation. He then launched into the first part of his address, which focused on having faith that the dots of one's life will connect down the road, even if the journey so far has not followed a clear pattern.
Jobs said his biological mother was an unwed graduate student who wanted him to go to college, so she chose a lawyer and his wife to be the adoptive parents. But because they ultimately wanted a girl, he was adopted by a working-class couple—neither of whom had college degrees, Jobs said.
Jobs said they pledged to send him to college, and when the time came, he chose Reed College in Portland, Ore. Concerned that tuition was draining his parents' life savings and dissatisfied by his required courses, Jobs said he dropped out and began taking courses that interested him—including a calligraphy course that, a decade later, inspired him to design different fonts for the first Macintosh.
Wearing jeans and sandals under his black robe, Jobs delivered a keynote address that spanned his adoption at birth to his insights into mortality after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a year ago. In plainspoken terms, his address struck a balance between the obstacles he has encountered during his notably public life and the lessons he has gleaned—for example, from his high-profile ousting in 1985 from the computer company he helped start.
"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me," said Jobs, 50. "It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life."
The 2005 Commencement proceeded with its familiar mix of the goofy and the formal: Graduates attached plush animals to their caps and carried body-length flotation devices onto the field for the Wacky Walk. This traditional kickoff to the ceremony was once again a flurry of wild wigs, rock-star shades, feather boas and a few Speedo swim trunks.
Also seen were a procession of walking iPods, several balloon floats, spray-painted umbrellas and one group that unfurled a volleyball net and spontaneously started to play. The first ones on the field carried boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, while behind them a dance troupe in tutus and ape masks pranced around the track.
But calm was restored once the graduates took their seats and the Rev. Scotty McLennan, dean for religious life, delivered the opening invocation. President John Hennessy then welcomed the estimated 23,000 people in the stadium and, after a presentation of faculty, staff and student awards by Provost John Etchemendy, returned to the podium to introduce the keynote speaker.
Hennessy said Jobs embodied the university's spirit, its "willingness to be bold and strike out in new directions." Hennessy also touched on Jobs' reputation as an innovator, a visionary and an advocate for education who developed partnerships during Apple's earliest days to get computers into schools and communities.
Jobs began by noting that he dropped out of college, and that Sunday's ceremony was the closest he had ever gotten to a university graduation. He then launched into the first part of his address, which focused on having faith that the dots of one's life will connect down the road, even if the journey so far has not followed a clear pattern.
Jobs said his biological mother was an unwed graduate student who wanted him to go to college, so she chose a lawyer and his wife to be the adoptive parents. But because they ultimately wanted a girl, he was adopted by a working-class couple—neither of whom had college degrees, Jobs said.
Jobs said they pledged to send him to college, and when the time came, he chose Reed College in Portland, Ore. Concerned that tuition was draining his parents' life savings and dissatisfied by his required courses, Jobs said he dropped out and began taking courses that interested him—including a calligraphy course that, a decade later, inspired him to design different fonts for the first Macintosh.
