Over radio waves and on television screens all across the world news of the death of Apple co-founder and incomparable innovator Steve Jobs is being repeated.  That sad information is also being read on sleek Apple computers, on hand-held minicomputers called iPhones, on thin tablet computers called iPads and on the screens of the countless technology competitors who seek to compete with Apple and its products at the same time they draw inspiration and lessons from them.

The man who left an indelible impact on the world as we know it; the man who reshaped this world and revolutionized how all of the globe experiences music, information, news, video and pretty much anything else you can think of is gone.

Steve Jobs was simply without peer.  And individuals like Steve Jobs don’t come around too often.  His is a unique story of boundless creativity and fierce determination to make his dreams a reality that should imbue Americans with a sense of pride.

Over the coming days and weeks the tributes to Steve Jobs will come pouring in from everywhere—from the average man and woman on the street to the most powerful leaders in the universe.  They will laud his creative genius, his business acumen, his marketing abilities, the fruits of his labors which fill our lives with richness.  But in the end, words will not be able to do the man justice.

After all, how can we really capture what is almost too incredible for us to understand.  So instead, I will pause for a moment today and cast a gaze upon the iPhone that is resting on my desk.  I will admire the tiny computer’s clean design, its understated elegance and consider the limitless places this device can take me and how it connects me like never before to the world all around me.

I will reflect upon the life of Steve Jobs and simply say thank you for everything that he gave in his 56 years on earth. I will be grateful for having lived through the technological revolution that he impacted so forcefully. And I will stop typing for just a moment and remember that there are times in which words are inadequate and a lone icon standing alone truly says it all.  Steve Jobs was such an icon.