Ronald Wayne

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Ronald Gerald Wayne (born 1934) is the often forgotten "third founder" of Apple Computer (in addition to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak). He illustrated the first Apple logo and wrote the Apple I manual. While at Apple he also wrote their partnership agreement.

Wayne worked with Jobs at Atari before co-founding Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. He was given a 10% stake in Apple, but relinquished his stock for $800 only two weeks later because legally all members of a partnership are personally responsible for any debts incurred by any of the other partners.

Later that same year, venture capitalist Mike Markkula helped develop a business plan and convert the partnership to a corporation. In its first year of operations (1976), Apple's sales reached US$174,000. In 1977 sales rose to US$2.7 million, in 1978 to US$7.8 million and in 1980 to US$117 million. By 1982 Apple had a billion dollars in annual sales Wayne's stake could have been worth as much as US$1.5 billion; he claimed that he didn't regret selling the stock as he made "the best decision available at that time".

According to CNET, as of 1997 Wayne was working as an engineer for a defense contractor in Salinas, California. ^[1]