The Peculiar Truth about Apple's Little-Known 3rd Founder

• Ronald Wayne was an engineer who grew up in Cleveland in the 1930s and 1940s.

• After moving west to California, he made his first foray into his own business, which involved slot machines.

• That company did not succeed. Wayne blamed the failure on his lack of business acumen.

• He returned to engineering and got a job at a new company called Atari.

• That’s where he met fellow employees Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

• In 1976, the two Steves pitched Wayne on their concept to create a personal computer company. They wanted him onboard. Wayne was intrigued.

• The two Steves were in their 20s. Wayne was in his 40s and deemed more of a grownup. They wanted Wayne’s input, and they needed a tiebreaker vote on decisions.

• Steve & Steve received a 45% share in the company while Wayne would receive ten percent.

• Ronald Wayne drafted an agreement, which the trio signed.

• With that, Apple Computer was born on April 1, 1976.

• Wayne was responsible for writing the owners manual for the first Apple computer.

• He also created the first Apple Computer logo, which was nothing like the one used today.

• Wayne grew anxious about venturing into another risky enterprise. The failure of his slot machine company left him nervous about losing his shirt — again.

• So, just twelve days after signing on as a founder of Apple Computer (or months later according to Wozniak), Ronald Wayne declared that he had left the company.

• Jobs tried to get Wayne to reconsider. He failed.

• Jobs and Wozniak bought off Wayne’s shares of their fledgling business for $800.

• Wayne kept his position at Atari until he left in 1978.

• He then opened another business of his own — Wayne’s Philatelics. He bought and sold rare stamps and coins.

• After a robbery, he moved his stamp shop from California to Nevada, where he has lived ever since.

• Apple Computer went on to become a worldwide success. Ronald Wayne did not profit from it.

• In the 1990s, Wayne made $500 by selling the original business contract he and the two Steves had signed in 1976.

• Twenty years later, that document was purchased at auction for $1.6 million.

• Ronald Wayne did not profit from that, either.

• For decades, Wayne never possessed any Apple devices until he was given a free iPad at a business conference.

• His website — which lists him as an engineer, historian, and poet — promotes merchandise for sale bearing his original Apple Computer logo from the 1970s.

• As of this writing, Ronald Wayne is in his late 80s, and he lives in a trailer park in Pahrump, Nevada.