Jobs' Memorial Salutes 'The Crazy Ones'

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers."

Those words in the Apple "Think Different" TV commercial hit the emotional center during a memorial service Wednesday for Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs at company headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. According to CEO Tim Cook, Jobs himself wrote that script -- a description of risk-takers who changed the world, a description which equally applied to himself.

The commercial includes images of world-changing rebels -- Gandhi, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein and Bob Dylan, among others. According to an account in the San Jose Mercury News, when Cook played a recording of Jobs reading those lines, one employee noted that "suddenly you could hear everyone in the place trying to hold back tears." The employee added, "It was the best moment of the day."

'Forever Young'

Other speakers at the ceremony, which took place outside on the quad at the Apple campus, included former Vice President Al Gore, who is a member of the Apple board. Coldplay played "Fix You," and Norah Jones sang Bob Dylan's song, "Forever Young."

But while the "Think Different" commercial reading was emotional, the rest of the memorial was more festive. Cook's speech touched on his friendship with Jobs, and Gore's speech focused on the greatness of Apple as a company, and how Jobs created products that have an emotional attachment to customers. This, Gore said, is why his death has had such a resonance with so many people.

The company has reported that more than a million condolence messages have been left on its site since Jobs' death was announced. Some Apple retail stores were closed during the 90 minutes of the memorial so that employees could watch it remotely.

Working Till the End

There had been reports that Jobs was working on Apple business during his last full day alive, a report that now appears to have been confirmed. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said in a recent interview that, on the day the iPhone 4S was announced, Jobs called Tim Cook while Son was meeting with Cook. Cook said Jobs wanted to talk about their next product. Speculation is that the new product was the iPhone 5. Jobs passed away the next day.

Jobs died at age 56 on Oct. 5, following a fight with pancreatic cancer. On Oct. 7, a private funeral was held for the Apple visionary, and there was a large, private memorial service on Sunday at Stanford University.

The Sunday service included ex-President Bill Clinton, Gore, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google co-founder Larry Page, singer Bono, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, actor Tim Allen, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, Adobe co-founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke, and others.

Jobs will continue to be remembered in countless large and small ways, not the least of which will be a new authorized biography and, reportedly, a major feature film.