Tech elite pay tribute to Steve Jobs at memorial service

The technology industry’s top luminaries paid tribute to Steve Jobs at a memorial service at Stanford University on Sunday night.

The attendees bid farewell to Jobs, who died of pancreatic cancer on Oct. 5, in the same Memorial Church where David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, was memorialized in 1996. It’s the kind of ceremony you imagine takes place when one king dies and another is crowned. Except in this case, it seems like there is no transition to a new king of technology.

Those in attendence included Google chief executive Larry Page, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, former Vice President Al Gore, angel investor Ron Conway, lawyer Larry Sonsini, Intuit chairman Bill Campbell, Adobe co-founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, actor Tim Allen and others.

The San Jose Mercury News said that dozens of dark-suited security men with ear pieces guarded the university’s Cantor Art Center and walled off the rear entrance to the church. Waves of onlookers were cleared out of the university’s main quad and pushed back to the main street leading into the school. Jobs’ service was held on what California Governor Jerry Brown has designated as Steve Jobs Day. Apple employees will have their own memorial on Oct. 19.