On August 24, 2011, just six weeks before his death, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs announced his resignation as CEO. On the eve of his own leaving, Tim Cook now seems to have been his obvious successor, but back then, he was an unexpected and even controversial choice. Tim Cook resignation followed a previous leave of absence from the company starting in January 2011, during which Tim Cook had served as acting CEO.

Jobs's formal stepping down was an unmistakable end of an era for the company, and a very different departure from the first time he had left Apple, in 1985. The resignation followed a multi-year saga in which the executive was widely assumed to be in failing health. But, Steve Jobs was not always forthright about the exact nature and severity of his illness.

The first battle Jobs was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer as long before as the fall of 2003. In an extreme example of Jobs' stubborn nature, he first fought his disease with alternative medicine, as well as a special diet. Eventually, in the summer of 2004, Jobs underwent a surgery, known as a "Whipple procedure," that successfully removed the tumor.

As Apple's Chief Operating Officer at the time, Tim Cook assumed Steve Jobs' duties on an interim basis during his leave and subsequent recuperation. Jobs told Apple employees about the cancer shortly before his surgery, and disclosed the diagnosis and surgery after they happened. That information, and the rumors beforehand, had left many inside and outside of Apple, wondering about the company's future.

Even so, Jobs didn't address the cancer battle at length in any public way until his now famous commencement address at Stanford University in June of 2005."About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer," Steve Jobs told the Stanford graduates. "I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.""My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die," added Jobs. "It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months.

It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes."In an example, perhaps, of his famed "reality distortion field," Jobs' speech wasn't exactly an accurate depiction of the timeline, front-dating his diagnosis and leaving out the period of several months in which he used alternative treatments. Despite that prediction of three to six months, Steve Jobs actually appeared to recover well over the next couple of years.

He recovered sufficiently that attention on his health lessened, ...