Dan Kottke

Daniel G. Kottke was a college friend of Steve Jobs and one of the first employees to join the Apple Computer Company after its original co-founders.

Early life and education
Kottke met Jobs at Reed College in 1972. In 1974, the two embarked on a spiritual pilgrimage to India to meet Neem Karoli Baba at his ashram in Kainchi. When they arrived at the ashram, it was almost deserted because Neem Karoli Baba had died in September 1973. They continued on a long trek up a dry riverbed to an ashram of Haidakhan Babaji. The two spent a lot of time in India on bus rides from Delhi to Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

After returning from India, Kottke transferred to Columbia College in 1975 as a literature and music major. He stayed in touch with Jobs and they traveled together to fellow Reed College classmate Robert Friedland's All One Farm near Portland, Oregon. The apple orchard there would serve as the inspiration for naming the Apple Computer Company.



Apple Computer
While the original Apple Computer Company was still based in the home of Steve Jobs's parents in 1976, Kottke was asked in June to help assemble and test Apple I logic boards as one of its first part-time employees. After graduating from Columbia in May 1977, Kottke joined the newly incorporated Apple Computer as full-time employee #12. In 1981, Kottke became involved in assembling Macintosh prototypes with Brian Howard.

Steve Wozniak gave Kottke some of his personal shares in Apple after Jobs refused to grant him any stock options. The two had a falling out after Kottke participated in an unflattering profile of Jobs that was published in 1982 by Time magazine and mentioned that Lisa Brennan was Jobs' daughter.

Media portrayals
Kottke was portrayed by Marcus Giamatti and Lukas Haas in the dramatized films Pirates of Silicon Valley and jOBS, respectively.

Articles

 * These Pictures Of Apple's First Employees Are Absolutely Wonderful by Jim Edwards at Business Insider (2013-12-26)