Apple to hold Steve Jobs celebration on Oct. 19

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said today the company will hold a celebration of Steve Jobs life at a special event on Oct. 19.

In a memo to employees, Cook said the event will take place at 10 am at Apple’s outdoor amphitheater at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Although the memo didn’t say so, the event is not likely to be open to the public. Silicon Valley hasn’t seen an occasion like this since the public memorial service for David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, who died in 1996 at the age of 83. That event was held at the Memorial Church at Stanford University.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Jobs died of respiratory failure at about 3 pm on Oct. 5. The death certificate said that the underlying cause was “metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor.” Jobs had been diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2003 and underwent a liver transplant in 2009.

Cook’s memo follows:

Team,

Like many of you, I have experienced the saddest days of my lifetime and shed many tears during the past week. But I’ve found some comfort in the extraordinary number of tributes and condolences from people all over the world who were touched by Steve and his genius. And I’ve found comfort in both telling and listening to stories about Steve.

Although many of our hearts are still heavy, we are planning a celebration of his life for Apple employees to take time to remember the incredible things Steve achieved in his life and the many ways he made our world a better place. The celebration will be held on Wednesday, October 19, at 10am in the outdoor amphitheater on the Infinite Loop campus. We’ll have more details on AppleWeb closer to the date, including arrangements for employees outside of Cupertino.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Tim